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THE BLUE PEARL 





















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“The Kraken, the Kraken.” shouted Saanak 


THE BLUE PEARL 


BY 

SAMUEL SCOVILLE, Jr. 

Author of “Boy Scouts in the Wilderness,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY 
CHARLES LIVINGSTON BULL 



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NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 



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Copyright, 1919, 1920, by 

The Century Co. 


Copyright, 1920, by 
Samuel Scoville, Jr. 



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THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
TO 

THE BOY SCOUTS 

OF 

PHILADELPHIA AND OF DELAWARE 
AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES, 
PENNSYLVANIA, 

WITH WHOM I HAVE WORKED 
AND PLAYED FOR MANY YEARS 





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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Argonauts 3 

II The Mile Run 30 

III Outward Bound 57 

IV The Free People 85 

V The Life Adventurous . . .111 

VI The Quest of the Otter . .138 

VII The Testing of Jud .... 165 

VIII The Lion of the North . . . 198 

IX The Sea Wolf 233 

X Mahmut 263 

XI The Nightmare of the Sea . . 290 

XII The Blue Pearl 317 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“The kraken, the kraken !” shouted Saanak 

Frontispiece 

PACINO 

PAGE 

The two dogs dodged back just in time to 
avoid the double blows 1 8 8 


The whale stood upright in the water . .198 


Frozen in a solid block of clear ice, towered 
a monster such as had not walked this 
earth for ten times ten thousand years . 222 


THE BLUE PEARL 



THE BLUE PEARL 


CHAPTER I 

THE ARGONAUTS 

F IFTY thousand dollars!” said Big Jim 
Donegan. 

“Not for one pearl!” exclaimed Will 

Bright. 

“For a blue pearl,” corrected the lumber- 
king. “Bring me one as big as the pink pearl 
you found last summer and I ’ll pay that for 
it cash down. But what ’s the use of talkin’,” 
he went on morosely, “there ain’t such a thing. 
Nobody ever saw a big blue pearl.” 

“I have,” quietly asserted a slim, swarthy 
boy who during the whole evening had never 
been more than a foot away from Will. 

Big Jim opened his mouth to roar as he 
usually did whenever any one differed with 
him — and then shut it again. He had found 
that it did not pay to contradict Joe Couteau, 

3 


4 


THE BLUE PEARL 


that boy with the blood of a long line of sure, 
silent Indian chiefs in his veins. 

It was some two years after Will and Joe 
had come back from their great adventure 
already chronicled in the “Boy Scouts in the 
Wilderness.” Without food, fire or clothing 
they had spent thirty days in the forest; fought 
for their lives with savage beasts and still more 
savage men; found a great pink pearl ; broken 
up a band of moonshiners; and last and best 
of all had won for their Boy Scout troop a 
cabin and ten acres of timber-land from Mr. 
Donegan. Since that time old Jim Donegan, 
the lumber-king of America, had become a 
firm friend of the Boy Scouts of Cornwall. 
Especially did he admire Will and Joe who 
had proved to him that he was wrong in his es- 
timate of the Boy Scouts and from whom he 
had bought the pink pearl — at a price. To- 
night the whole Troop was being entertained 
on his estate; and, after a wonderful dinner, 
the old man had offered to show the boys his 
collection of precious stones which, except for 
making money early and often, was his only 
hobby. 


THE ARGONAUTS 5 

After dinner he had taken them into the 
library. There upon touching a spring in the 
wall a great bookcase, filled with books, swung 
forward showing the side of a vast vault of 
chrome-steel. Unlocking a whole nest of 
combination-locks one after another, an enor- 
mous door opened silently and the Troop en- 
tered a solid steel room. The long cabinet 
of satin-wood drawers lined with black velvet 
held the famous collection of the lumber-king. 
For an hour or more he showed the delighted 
boys his treasures. As drawer after drawer 
was opened, the little room seemed filled with 
the shimmer and sheen of a perfect rainbow 
of colors. There were the red blink and flare 
of rubies, with their sullen depths of blood 
and fire, from Brazil and India and the far- 
away Caucasus, which, carat for carat, out- 
priced the best diamonds of Kimberley. 
Some of them were large enough to have 
names and stories. Three of them had been 
part of the loot of pirate-ships and they 
gleamed vengefully from the black velvet as 
if all the blood and pain and sin of those cruel 
crews had been crystallized in their blood-red 


6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


depths. Another drawer was full of the cool, 
deep, unfathomable green of emeralds, with a 
flash in their depths such as one sees in a great 
wave as it breaks in the sun. Some had been 
dug by short-lived serfs in the Ural Mountains 
centuries ago. Others had been part of the 
treasure which Cortez and Pizarro brought 
back from the hoards of Montezuma and 
Inca. Then there was the cold star-shine of 
great diamonds, water-white like fire and ice, 
while one yellow diamond shone like golden 
Jupiter in a midnight sky. Rarest of them all 
was “Hellheart,” smoky black with a red 
heart of flame. The tradition was that it had 
belonged to Blackbeard, the pirate. It was 
cut in the shape of a great heart by some un- 
known lapidary. Mr. Donegan told the boys 
that no diamond-cutter of to-day could cut the 
wonderful faceted heart which smouldered be- 
fore them. There were ice-blue sapphires; 
opals, a tortured blaze of prismatic colors and 
delicate translunary tints; apple-green jade; 
turquoises like robins’ eggs; soft, lustrous 
moonstones, chrysoprase, jacinths, sea-blue 
aquamarines, masses of lapis-lazuli and mala- 


THE ARGONAUTS 


7 

chite; strange shifting cat’s-eyes; pale yellow 
topazes ; white sapphires which glowed instead 
of glittering; fiery, scarlet carbuncles; cyno- 
phane, with its wire-like line of silver — few 
of the kings of earth had a collection which 
could equal t‘he one belonging to Jim Done- 
gan, who had begun life as a lumber- jack. 

At last, the old man drew out one drawer 
larger than all the others, filled with a shim- 
mering, multi-colored mass of pearls, his 
favorite gem. They glowed as if holding 
some hidden, soft light within, and were 
graded and shaded with all the art that the 
trained eye and skill of the old collector could 
command. Not one of them there but was 
worth a small fortune. Some of them were 
round, gleaming pearls from far-away shark- 
haunted seas! Others were the larger irregu- 
lar treasures torn from the four-hundred-odd 
kinds of fresh-water mussels that are found in 
all of our rivers, brooks and lakes. The colors 
were as different as the shapes. White, black, 
brown, amber, yellow and green were all 
there. By itself glowed the lustrous pink 
pearl that Will had found, that Scar Dawson 


8 


THE BLUE PEARL 


had stolen and that Joe had rescued. Yet 
among all that rainbow there was no shade of 
blue. 

“You fellows stay a bit,” Mr. Donegan said 
gruffly to Will and Joe. “I ’ll send you home 
in my car later on.” 

When the last guest was gone Jim turned to 
the Indian boy. 

“Tell me all about that blue pearl!” he de- 
manded. 

Joe looked at him silently for a moment. 

“Once when I very little,” he said at last, “I 
went with my uncle to Goreloi. That mean 
Island of the Bear,” he explained. “He big 
medicine-'man and he w^ant to be bigger, so he 
go to get blue pearl. That very good medi- 
cine,” the boy explained. 

“You bet it ’s good medicine,” muttered the 
old collector, “but what did he w4nt to take 
a kid like you along for anyway?” 

“Because,” answered Joe, “he afraid to trust 
any man with secret. Man might kill him 
when he sleep and take pearl,” he went on 
simply. “He take me because I young and 


THE ARGONAUTS 


9 

his own blood and he need some one to watch 
while he hunted.” 

“Watch for what?” interrupted Mr. Don-e- 
gan again. 

Joe paused a moment. 

“That place not have its name for nothing,” 
he at last responded. “It guarded.” 

“If it were any one else,” broke in Will, 
“I ’d think this was all a fairy story.” 

“I, myself, see,” returned Joe gravely. 

“Go on, go on,” urged the lumber-king. 

Joe thought for a moment. 

“We come to little blue river,” he continued 
at last. “It run out of great dark cave in 
mountain. I sit in canoe with paddle ready 
to push off while chief hunt, hunt, hunt for 
pearl. At night we camp in little cave and 
roll big stone in front of entrance. One day, 
two day, three day he hunt. Then on last 
day he open big mussel and pull out blue, 
shiny stone and call very loud. I call too 
very loud, ’cause just behind him come pad, 
pad, pad great brown beast. It look like 
bear but bigger, fiercer than any bear any one 


IO 


THE BLUE PEARL 


ever saw except in a bad dream. Chief reach 
canoe just in time. I push off and we hardly 
get away. Then chief show me pearl. It 
was bright blue and big as pigeon-egg. Then 
we paddle a day and a night and get back to 
tribe.” 

Old Jim Donegan had leaned forward so as 
not to miss a syllable of the boy’s story. 
When Joe had finished the old man looked at 
him for a long time without speaking. 

“I haven’t wife, nor chick nor child,” he 
said at last slowly. “My collection takes the 
place of them all. No collection on earth has 
a pearl like the one you saw. I ’ve got to 
have one from that same river.” 

Joe shook his head. 

“No one knows the way to Goreloi,” he 
said, “except Great Chief. He may be dead. 
When I left tribe he had gone away on far 
journey South. Maybe he never come back.” 

The old man paced up and down the room 
and made Joe describe the pearl over and over 
again. 

“Boys,” he said at last, “I want you fellows 
to go to Goreloi, wherever it is, and bring me 


THE ARGONAUTS 


1 1 


back a blue pearl. I ’ll finance the trip and 
if you have any luck, you ’ll have more money 
in three months than most men get in ten years. 
School stops next week. You might just as 
well make money this vacation instead of 
spending it.” 

The boys looked at each other. 

“I ’ll bet,” went on the old man, “that you 
fellows find vacations here kind o’ dull after 
killin’ bears and carcajous and rattlesnakes 
and huntin’ pearls and fightin’ moonshiners 
on your last one! Here ’s a chance to travel 
and have adventures ! Why, boys,” he went on 
earnestly, “when you get as old as I am, you ’ll 
know that the adventurous life is the best life. 
The boy who is always lookin’ for adventures, 
who is always ready for quests, who learns to. 
face dangers and overcome difficulties — that ’s 
the kind of a boy who amounts to something 
when he gets to be a man. It ’s the strenuous 
life that counts. We were n’t put into this 
world to play safe, but to seek and fight and 
find and wander, and to never, never quit!” 

The old lumber-king stopped and looked at 
them sadly. 


12 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“If I were ten years younger, or if I could 
only depend on my legs, I ’d go with you my- 
self,” he said at last, “and we ’d have a great 
old time together, too! Nowadays, though, 
my adventurin’ has to be done for me and I ’m 
appointin’ you fellows my proxies. Pick out 
two more chaps to go with you that you can 
depend on. Four is the right number for a 
hard trip. I ’ll grub-stake you and if there 
is such a thing as a big, blue pearl, you fellows 
are to find it. What do you say?” 

Will looked at Joe. 

“Listens kind o’ good to me, old scout,” he 
exclaimed. 

Joe shook his head doubtfully. 

“Long, hard trip,” he said briefly. “My 
uncle say to me danger, sorrow, death always 
price of blue pearl.” 

The lumber-king looked disgusted. 

“You ’d better get Joe some nice thick wool 
socks,” he remarked to Will sarcastically; 
“his feet ain’t any too warm!” 

“You ’ve got another guess coming,” re- 
turned Will indignantly. “Joe always ' talks 
safe and acts dangerous’! If you had been 


THE ARGONAUTS 


13 

with him in the tight places where I have, you 
would n’t speak that way.” 

“There, there,” soothed the lumber-king. 
“I take it all back. Any kid that helped break 
up Scar Dawson’s gang and went through 
what he did with you certainly has n’t got 
anything the matter with his circulation,” and 
he patted Joe’s unresponsive back apologeti- 
cally. “You boys think it over, and come 
back here to-morrow night and let me know 
what you decide.” 

All the way home the boys talked it over. 
At least, Will talked and Joe grunted. They 
separated without coming to any decision. 
The next day at school they thought far more 
of blue pearls and bears and Indians than they 
did of algebra and history and English. Just 
before the day’s session was over, Mr. Sanford, 
the young principal, read to their class a trans- 
lation from the Greek of the story of the 
Golden Fleece. 

“And they rowed over the wine-dark sea, 
heroes all beyond the sunset where were 
gold and pearls and mysterious enchanted 


14 


THE BLUE PEARL 


islands and strange peoples. For some death 
awaited, for others riches, for all a fame which 
still rings across the vanished years.” 

As he finished Will turned to find Joe 
watching him closely. Will raised his eye- 
brows questioningly. Joe gave a little nod. 
The Quest of the Blue Pearl had begun. 

That night a strange thing happened. 
They had gone to Mr. Donegan’s house to tell 
him of their decision. The lumber-king was 
delighted and just as he was promising that he 
would persuade Will’s parents to let him go 
his English butler came in to him, much dis- 
turbed. 

“There ’s a h’individual at the door who in- 
sists upon seeing you, sir,” he announced. 

“Did n’t you tell him I was busy, James?” 
snapped the old man irritably. 

“Indeed I did, sir,” returned the perturbed 
James. “H’all he said was that he was going 
to get busy himself.” 

“He did, eh!” exclaimed Mr. Donegan. 
“Well, you show him in, and I ’ll attend to 
his business mighty quick.” 


THE ARGONAUTS 


i5 

A moment later the door opened and in 
slipped a little, wiry, gray-bearded man with 
sharp, black, unflinching eyes. 

“Hello, Jim !” he said. “Howdy, Will,” he 
went on, turning to the boys. 

“Well, if it ain’t old Jud Adams!” shouted 
the lumber-king, seizing one of his hands 
while Will grabbed the other. “Why did n’t 
you send your name in?” went on Mr. Done- 
gan, shaking the old man affectionately. 

“I did,” said Jud, rescuing himself with 
some difficulty from the over-enthusiastic 
greetings of his friends. “I told that chap 
with a shiny shirt on that I was Jud Adams. 
He kept a sayin’, ‘You ain’t no judge, come 
some other time,’ but I said to him, ‘Now is 
the time.’ ” 

Old Jud had spent the best part of his life 
in the open. It was he who had given Will 
his first lessons in woodcraft. He had pros- 
pected and trapped and hunted all over the 
North American continent. In his youth he 
had spent a year with an Eskimo tribe. Later 
he had been in the Klondike rush, and was one 
of the first to go over fatal “Dead Horse 


1 6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Pass,” and had dug for gold from the Mexican 
border up to beyond Circle City. 

“Jim,” said Jud finally, “I hear that you ’re 
goin’ to grub-stake a party to do some pros- 
pectin’ in the Northwest.” 

“How did you hear that?” said Big Jim in 
astonishment. 

“Never mind,” said Jud, “nobody can’t do 
any treasure-huntin’ in this village without me 
hearin’ about it. If there ’s any prospectin’ 
party goin’ out from Cornwall I ’m goin’ to 
be in it. I ’ve been all over the Northwest 
from the Aleutian Islands clear up above the 
Arctic Circle. I know the people, white, red 
and yellow. I ’ve trapped and hunted and 
dug for gold and starved and fought and 
tramped over that whole blame country. 
There ain’t many things out there that flies or 
creeps or runs that I have n’t seen. One of 
these kids I taught all he knows, which ain’t 
much,” went on Jud without giving Mr. 
Donegan a chance to speak. “Here I am 
right in the prime o’ life, pinin’ away for 
somethin’ to do, and I tell you, Jim Donegan, 


THE ARGONAUTS 


i7 

you ’ll make a bad mistake if you send out any 
party that doesn’t have me along.” 

“Prime o’ life!” scoffed Big Jim. “Why, 
Jud, you ’re sixty-five if you ’re a day!” 

“I ain’t, I ain’t!” shrieked the other. “But 
what if I be? It ain’t a man’s years that 
count. It ’s what he can do. There ain’t 
anything that these kids can do that I can’t 
do better.” 

“Well,” said the lumber-king at last, “it’s 
up to these boys. If they want you, I sure 
do!” 

“You bet we want you, Jud,” said Will, and 
Joe nodded approvingly. 

Followed a long discussion of ways and 
means in which Jud’s experience was a great 
help. As for guns the boys decided to take 
the new high-powered American army rifles 
which, using soft-nosed bullets, would stop 
anything. For himself Jud still clung to an 
old Sharp’s rifle that with certain modern im- 
provements he had used for over forty years. 

So far as Joe could indicate on the map, 
the island where his tribe lived, as well as 


THE BLUE PEARL 


that mysterious “Island of the Bear,” were 
both parts of that fringe of islands which 
guard the shores of upper Alaska. It was 
while his uncle was away on his mysterious 
trip to the South, and while Joe was on a 
hunting-trip that his mother had been left to 
starve during one of the great famines which 
overtake, sooner or later, all Indian tribes. 
When he returned to find her dead, he had 
left the tribe and with the help of a near-by 
mission had managed to cross the continent 
and join his father’s brother at Cornwall. 

The expedition once decided upon, Mr. 
Donegan organized the details with the deci- 
sion and dispatch which had made him a 
multi-millionaire. First he obtained the con- 
sent of Mr. and Mrs. Bright that Will might 
go — no small undertaking. 

“If he succeeds, I ’ll back him for the rest 
of my life — and afterwards,” he assured them. 

“That’s a good deal for Big Jim Donegan 
to say,” Mr. Bright remarked privately to his 
wife. “I guess, Mother, we ’ll have to let the 
boy go. Life is just one chance after another, 
anyway. He ’s as liable to die plowin’ as 


THE ARGONAUTS 


i9 

pearlin’,” went on Mr. Bright, who was some- 
thing of a philosopher. No such formality 
was necessary with old Hen Couteau, the char- 
coal burner, Joe’s uncle. 

“I go back to see my people,” Joe an- 
nounced. 

“Yes?” said the old man. “Well, go 
ahead. You ain’t no use in the charcoal busi- 
ness — but I ’ll be glad to see you back again.” 

The same night that he secured the consent 
of the Brights, Mr. Donegan wired to Port 
Townsend on Puget Sound, which was the 
headquarters for a fleet of steamers which he 
owned on the Pacific. He arranged to have 
the boys met there by the Bear, a swift sea- 
worthy little steamer whose captain had 
cruised frequently through the northern waters 
and who, if anybody, would be likely to know 
his way to Akotan, the island where Joe’s tribe 
lived. 

Remained only the choice of the last mem- 
ber of the party. Both Will and Joe were 
agreed that he must be a member of the Corn- 
wall Troop. It was hard to choose. Buck 
Whittlesey and Billy Darby were leaders of 


20 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the Owl and Wolf patrols to which Will and 
Joe belonged respectively. Boots Lockwood 
and Freddie Perkins were enthusiastic woods- 
men and devoted friends of both the boys; 
and then there was Jack Dorsey, the best shot 
in the town, and Bob Coulston, an Eagle Scout. 
It was hard to make a decision. At last Will 
had a bright idea. 

“Next week,” he said, “comes the Inter- 
scholastic Games. Every fellow whom we 
have thought of taking is on the team of the 
Cornwall High. Let ’s wait until after the 
Games and pick out the one who shows the 
most sand and sense at the Games.” 

Joe and Jud agreed. 

“Better pick out a good runner,” said the 
old trapper. “If Joe’s tellin’ the truth about 
that treasure island of his, we ’ll all need to be 
pretty lively on our legs in order to get back 
alive!” 

For years the Cornwall High School had 
entered teams in the great Interscholastic 
Games where twenty schools competed for the 
championship of the East. So far she had 
never scored a point. Cornwall was a small 


THE ARGONAUTS 


21 


town, and, although her boys were a strong and 
sturdy lot, they had no track and only the 
crudest kind of training. Then came Mr. 
Sanford, the new principal. He solved the 
most complicated problems in algebra and 
geometry with dazzling ease. It was rumored 
that at college he used to read Greek aloud 
for the pleasure of it and translate the morning 
newspapers into Latin. Probably that was an 
exaggeration. At any rate he never showed 
any such alarming symptoms of learning at 
Cornwall. It was he, however, who had or- 
ganized and become the scout-master of the 
Cornwall Boy Scouts. Under him Will and 
Joe had won the cabin for the Troop two years 
before, and it was Mr. Sanford who had 
helped rescue them from the burning cabin in 
that last never-to-be-forgotten fight with the 
moonshiners. It was not until school opened 
again that year, however, that the boys sus- 
pected that he knew anything about athletics. 
One afternoon when school was over, he had 
strolled down to the cow-pasture which the 
boys used for an athletic field and watched 
them training for the fall games. He seemed 


22 


THE BLUE PEARL 


to be more amused than impressed by their 
efforts. First he watched the sprinters of 
which Boots Lockwood was the particular 
star. Some of them started standing up, 
others crouched, but one and all hung on their 
marks when the last signal was given. 

“If you ’ll spring from both feet you ’ll find 
that you get away faster,” he suggested to the 
line of alleged sprinters. The boys smiled at 
each other, and went on with their own sys- 
tem. Mr. Sanford flushed a little. 

“I ’ll come back in a little while,” he said 
finally, “and show you that I know what I ’m 
talking about.” 

His suggestions to the broad-jumpers on 
how to strike the take-off and his advice to the 
quarter-milers about their first hundred were 
met with the same indifference. Whereupon 
the principal left the field. Fifteen minutes 
later, he was back again carrying a traveling 
bag. With this he retired to the dressing- 
house, which had once been a cow-shed. Pres- 
ently there emerged from this ex-cow-shed a 
figure in which the boys could scarcely recog- 


THE ARGONAUTS 


23 


nize their learned principal. He wore a 
sleeveless jersey and a pair of running-trunks. 
On his feet were the first pair of spiked run- 
ning-shoes that had ever appeared at Corn- 
wall, while in his hands he carried a pair of 
battered, nicked and grooved running-corks. 
The whole team gathered around him as he 
went toward the straight-away stretch of green 
turf where the sprinters practiced. 

“Now,” he said decisively, “pick out your 
three best men and start us off for the full 
distance.” 

Boots and two other sprinters lined up be- 
side him while one of the other boys proceeded 
to start them. Mr. Sanford crouched down 
with the others, but as the starter said “Get 
set!” his lithe body slowly rose and at the very 
first breath of the final “Go!” he leaped into 
his stride and was off a full yard ahead of the 
rest. Run as they would, not one of the three 
best sprinters of the Cornwall High School 
was able to draw up level with him again. 
Then he went down to the broad-jump pit and 
with his first jump covered twenty feet, which 


24 


THE BLUE PEARL 


was six inches farther than anybody else could 
negotiate. When he finished, he was sur- 
rounded by an admiring group. 

“You fellows want to remember,” he said, 
puffing a little, “that even tottering old chaps 
like me may know something about athletics. 
If I am still here next year,” he went on as he 
started back to the dressing-house, “I ’m going 
to put the Cornwall High School Athletic 
Team on the map.” 

Thereafter he called upon Big Jim Done- 
gan. The old man came in puffing and rum- 
bling and grumbling as usual. 

“Well, Mr. Schoolmaster,” he began, “what 
can I do for you? You ’ve taken a cabin and 
ten good acres of timber-land away from me 
for your Troop and made me pay those two 
kids of yours a frightful price for their pink 
pearl. Now what is it? Another hold-up, I 
expect.” 

“You have the idea,” said the principal, who 
had become a fast friend of the old man. “I 
want you to help me turn out a winning ath- 
letic team for Cornwall High School and show 
these other schools we are the real stuff.” 


THE ARGONAUTS 25 

The lumber-king was all interest at once. 
He had been born in Cornwall. 

“I ’m afraid you can’t do it, Mr. School- 
master,” he said sympathetically. “You know 
a lot about book-learnin’, but I guess you never 
had time to learn much about runnin’ and 
jumpin’ and so on.” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” returned the other. “I 
used to know about athletics and perhaps 
I have n’t forgotten it all yet. Anyhow, if 
you will help we can get a winning team.” 

“What do you want me to do?” queried 
old Jim. “I have n’t time to go out and run 
on the team myself.” 

“Well, I ’ll tell you, Mr. Donegan,” said 
the principal. “I want you first to build the 
best quarter-mile cinder path that money can 
buy on that old cow-pasture that you let us use, 
and a little training house with some shower- 
baths in place of the old cow-stable. Then 
I ’ve just heard that old Mike Murphy, the 
best trainer in the world, wants to come up 
from Philadelphia and settle in a northern 
climate for his health. He trained the Yale 
Team which won the Intercollegiate years 


2 6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


ago, and the Olympic Team that won the 
championship of the world, and I can get him 
up here if you ’ll foot the bill. Then I want 
you — ” 

“Whoa! Whoa!” yelled the old man. “I 
smoke, you know, and I ’d like you to leave me 
enough to buy a little tobacco now and then!” 

“Well,” returned Mr. Sanford, “I ’ll let you 
off from anything more except running-suits 
and spiked shoes.” 

Old Jim thought for a moment. 

“You ’re on,” he said finally. “Go as far as 
you like! Only — I expect a winning team.” 

Followed great doings for the Cornwall 
High School. A thin-faced man with reddish 
hair, cold, blue eyes, and a gray moustache 
came to town. He had been seen to slap the 
dignified principal of the high-school vio- 
lently on the back and call him “Dannie.” 
An army of workmen changed the cow-pasture 
into a well-appointed athletic-field. Then 
one afternoon, after school, the boys were 
gathered together and Mike, as everybody 
called him, gave them a little talk. He had 
the rare gift of arousing his audience. He 


THE ARGONAUTS 


27 


told the boys what athletics had done for 
America and how it helped men and boys to 
keep themselves straight and clean and strong. 
Then he went on to tell the boys stories of 
great athletes whom he had known and 
trained. He told of Owen, the first man who 
ever went under ten seconds for the hundred- 
yard dash in that great race when Jewett, 
Owen, Westing and Carey all started in the 
finals, each with a different start. He told 
them of old Deerfoot, the Indian, who, run- 
ning in his moccasins, set a world record of 
eleven miles and nine hundred and seventy 
yards for the hour, and of the great profes- 
sional race of W. G. George and Bill Lang 
when the mile record went down to 4.1 2^4- 
“But the best race I ever saw, lads,” he 
finally ended, “was the day when Yale won the 
Intercollegiate Cup for keeps after a dozen 
colleges had been tryin’ for twenty years. 
The half-mile race was the last event. Fifty 
men started. When they turned into the 
home-stretch, at the last lap, there were three 
men left and you could have covered them all 
with a blanket. Neck and neck and neck they 


28 


THE BLUE PEARL 


came down, staggerin’ and weavin’ around, all 
gone, and just before they got to the tape there 
was one slim little chap, a quarter-mile runner, 
who had won the quarter only an hour before 
and had no business to be runnin’ in the half. 
He threw his head back and the foam lay on 
his lips and he clenched his corks and he come 
in, and drew away from that bunch, runnin’ 
on nothin’ at all but the nerve and courage of 
him! An’ he broke the tape a foot ahead of 
the two best half-milers in the world. An’ he 
broke the Intercollegiate record, and won the 
cup, an’ he ’s right here before you and his 
name ’s Dannie Sanford!” 

There was a sudden silence as the boys 
looked at Mr. Sanford, who blushed and tried 
to stop Mike. Then there was a storm of 
cheers and applause, after which the trainer 
went on. 

“He sent for me, boys. He says you ’ve 
been the laughin’-stock of the whole school 
league, but if you fellows will come out and 
do what I tell you, next spring you ’ll be doin’ 
the laughin’.” 

That was the beginning of it. There were 


THE ARGONAUTS 


29 


seventy-six boys in the school. Seventy-five 
of them signed up that afternoon to try for the 
athletic team. The only reason the seventy- 
sixth did n’t was because he had only one leg. 
All that winter the boys ran cross-country, 
rain, shine, snow or cold. Day after day, 
Mike trained and trained and trained them, 
indoors and out. The over-confident he held 
back. The timid he spurred on with stories 
of what could be done by even weaklings, if 
only they would dare. The lazy, the dis- 
obedient, the lax who would not or could not 
train he weeded out; and a few days before the 
games he told Mr. Sanford that he had a team 
of boys fit to run for their lives. 


CHAPTER II 

THE MILE RUN 

A T last the day of the games dawned, as 
days have had a habit of doing for 
several years back. The whole school 
gathered at the station to go with their team to 
the college town where the games were to be 
held. There was Mike, wearing a wonderful 
new Panama, ostentatiously cheerful and full 
of good stories and funny jokes, as always be- 
fore a competition. Mr. Sanford was there 
in white flannels, and Pop Smith, the pop-corn 
man, a little old man with a long white beard 
who looked like a gnome and who claimed to 
be the official mascot of the Cornwall team. 
Besides these there were several thousand 
rooters — at least, they sounded like several 
thousand. Probably, if counted by numbers 
and not by noise, they would total fifty. Just 
as the train was about to start, there was a 
volley of toots, and down the road whirled a 
30 


THE MILE RUN 


3i 

red racer, out of which tumbled old Jim Done- 
gan and Jud Adams. 

“I ’m here to see fair play,” rumbled the 
lumber-king. 

“Yep,” piped up old Jud, to Mike, “I ’m 
cornin’ too, in case any of them kids give out 
and you need a real runner ” 

Every seat in the vast grandstand which 
surrounded the college athletic field was filled 
with rooters from the different schools belong- 
ing to the association. As Cornwall High 
marched on down to their seats, there was a 
tumult of shouts and laughter from thousands 
of boys and girls wearing other school colors. 

“Now we can start,” howled one cheer- 
leader through a megaphone. “The Back- 
woodsmen are here!” 

“Three cheers for the Also-Rans!” yelled 
another. 

"Rah! Rah! Rah! for the Tail-Enders!” 
came from across the field. 

“Shut up, you boneheads!” bellowed Jim 
Donegan, with his face redder than his tie, 
which was saying a good deal. “We ’ll show 
you some surprises to-day.” 


32 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Don’t talk back to them,” suggested the 
principal; “you ’ll only make them worse.” 

“They can’t be any worse!” howled old Jim. 
“I like to talk back to ’em.” 

In the stillness of the dressing-rooms the 
Cornwall team missed all this. The air was 
heavy with the smell of raw alcohol, with 
which brawny rubbers massaged the muscles 
on which so much depended that day. Wor- 
ried trainers and troubled captains passed back 
and forth, whispering last words of advice and 
warning. Here and there could be caught 
glimpses of boy athletes, all looking a little 
white and drawn. Some chewed gum, others 
wore a fixed smile. Some yawned continu- 
ally, and some shivered as if with a chill as 
the strain of the weary waiting affected each 
one of them. 

Old Mike wasted very little time in making 
speeches. 

“Lie down, you fellows; keep off your feet 
and take things easy,” he counseled. “You all 
feel nervous and scared and uncomfortable 
and as if you can’t run worth a cent. That’s 
the way you ought to feel before a race. I 


THE MILE RUN 


33 

handled Owen the day he first ran under even 
time in the hundred. Just before the final 
heat he couldn’t talk, his teeth chattered so; 
but he went out and beat the pick of the world. 
Charlie Kilpatrick could n’t eat for two days 
before the international games between Great 
Britain and the United States at Manhattan 
Field in 1895. I had to threaten to lick him 
to keep him from starvin’ to death; yet he 
went out and beat the other side all to death 
and broke the world’s record in the half-mile. 
You chaps ain’t anything to look at, a homelier 
bunch I never saw,” went on the old man, “but 
— you ’re fit to run for your lives and you ’re 
going to clean up these city fellows to-day.” 

So he went on, beguiling the time with many 
an athletic story, jollying, joking, encouraging, 
until his team were as comfortable as could be 
expected. Suddenly a shrill whistle blew 
outside. Then a leather-lunged announcer 
bellowed through a megaphone at the door of 
the training-house, “All out for the first heat 
of the hundred!” 

Boots Lockwood was the only sprinter in the 
school who had shown enough speed to be 


34 


THE BLUE PEARL 


entered in the dashes. He was a long, gawky, 
awkward boy with a comical freckled face and 
always joking. Only Mike, that judge of 
boys and men, knew what fire and force were 
hidden in that awkward body. 

“Don’t hurry,” he said craftily. “It’ll be 
five minutes at least before they ’re ready for 
this heat. Let the rest of ’em worry out on 
the track awhile.” 

Then Sid, the rubber, slapped a big handful 
of raw alcohol on Boots’s sinewy back and 
suppled up his lithe muscles with a final rub- 
down. Thrilling all over with the cold tingle 
of the alcohol, Boots laced on his spiked shoes, 
and, gripping his new corks, trotted out to join 
the rest of the entries on the long straight- 
away, where the dash was to be run. The rest 
of the waiting team shouted encouragement to 
him. 

“Go to it, old scout!” yelled Captain Bright, 
from his corner. 

“Eat ’em up, Boots!” squealed Bill Darby, 
who was in the half. 

“Show me how to do it,” urged Ted Bacon, 
who was in the next event — the quarter-mile. 


THE MILE RUN 


35 

Quite different were the remarks that 
greeted him on the track, where the contestants 
were waiting for the clerk of the course to 
finish his roll-call. 

“Cornwall ’s here ; let ’s go !” one shouted. 

“Don’t make him run; give him the heat!” 
yelled another; while even the badged officials 
found time to smile at the gawky, freckle-faced 
country boy. None of this made any impres- 
sion on Boots. He grinned cheerfully at 
spectators, officials, and competitors alike, al- 
though his freckles stood out a little brighter 
than usual as his face whitened under the 
strain. He trotted back and forth a few times 
to limber up, and a moment later found him- 
self lined up in the first heat. There was such 
a crowded entry that the clerk announced that 
first place alone would qualify in the finals. 
This meant hard going for Boots, for, of the 
other three men, one was Dole, the winner of 
the year before, while Black, the champion of 
the Hill School, the largest in the State, had 
broken the interscholastic record at his school 
spring games. 

“N ow — boys — I ’ll — tell — you — to — get — ■ 


3 6 THE BLUE PEARL 

set — and — then — fire — you — off. Any — man 
* — breaking — off — his — mark — before — the — 
pistol, — goes — back — a — yard,” clattered the 
starter, jumbling the words together according 
to the time-honored custom of starters. 

Boots drew the outside place. There the 
going was a little soft, but he did not have a 
man on each side of him. The champion had 
the inside position, while next to Boots was 
the record-breaker from Hill. For a moment 
the whole place throbbed with the cheers of 
the different schools, while Boots unconcern- 
edly dug his marks in the cinders with his 
spiked shoes. 

“On your marks!” shouted the starter, and 
Boots fitted his feet into the little holes which 
he had dug. 

“Get set!” came next. 

Remembering the advice of the crafty Mike, 
who had been one of the greatest of profes- 
sional sprinters in his day, Boots bent over as 
slowly as possible, knowing that the starter 
would not shoot the pistol until every com- 
petitor was in place. As he finally put his 
hands on the ground, fully half a second after 


THE MILE RUN 


37 

the others, he straightened out his arms and 
leaped forward from both feet just as the pistol 
went off. It was a perfect start, and only 
possible for one who could control his nerves 
enough to hold back. Like a flash he broke 
away a good yard ahead of the others. The 
unexpectedness of being beaten off their marks 
by an unknown runner flagged the spirits of 
the others for the tiniest fraction of a second, 
and sprinting is made up of fractions. At the 
fifty, Boots was fully six feet ahead of his field. 
Then the record-holder, who was a wonderful 
finisher, began steadily to overhaul him, with 
the other two hard on his shoulder. Holding 
his breath and running as he had never run 
before, Boots sped down his lane on the long 
smooth track, while closer and closer he could 
hear the pat-pat of the speeding feet behind. 
Ten yards from the finish, the other was almost 
at his shoulder. Then it was that the boy 
drew upon the fighting fury which lay within 
him and which had made him Mike’s choice. 
Calling on every last ounce of reserve speed, 
and with every atom of nerve and will concen- 
trated on keeping unbroken the swift, rhyth- 


THE BLUE PEARL 


38 

mical beat of his stride, he breasted the tape by 
a tiny fraction of a second ahead of the 
other. So close had been the finish that the 
three judges had to confer together before the 
announcer bellowed to the world at large: 
“Lockwood, Cornwall High, wins first heat of 
the hundred! Time, ten flat!” 

Boots jogged back to find that the world had 
changed. There were scattering cheers in- 
stead of jeers everywhere, while from the far- 
away section that had been assigned to the 
Cornwall High School came a storm of shouts 
and yells, which always ended with “Boots 
Lockwood!” Old Mike met him at the start 
and slapped him joyfully on the back. 

“You ’re a corker, me boy!” he shouted. “I 
knew you could do it. You ’ve killed off the 
worst in the first heat. The final ’s a pipe 
for you.” 

When Boots came back to the dressing- 
room, everybody pounded him on the back. 
The four-forty, as the quarter-mile is termed 
in cinder-path parlance, came next. It was to 
be run in one heat, and Billy Darby sallied 
forth to do or die. Following Mike’s direc- 


THE MILE RUN 


39 


tions, he leaped into the lead at the crack of 
the pistol, and ran his first hundred yards at 
sprinting speed, forging far ahead of the field. 
Unfortunately, he let the excitement of the 
race run away with his judgment. With a 
long lead and going strong, it seemed an easy 
matter to cover the rest of the distance at top 
speed ; but no human legs and lungs have yet 
been constructed which will allow man or boy 
to sprint a quarter-mile without slowing up 
somewhere. Poor Billy turned into the 
stretch well ahead of the bunch, but here his 
legs began to wabble, and a red-haired young- 
ster from the Hopkins Grammar School 
flashed by him, and, almost at the tape, an 
entry from the Haverford school crowded past 
him into second place. At any rate he had 
scored, for first place counted five points, 
second, two, and third, one. 

In the meantime, Buck Whittlesey and Ted 
Bacon, the biggest and strongest boys at the 
Cornwall school, had been giving the field a 
taste of country muscle in the twelve-pound 
shot. Although neither of them had been 
able to master the tricky drive of the arm and 


40 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the snappy reverse of body and legs which 
enables a shot-putter to get everything possible 
into his put, yet by main strength they managed 
to score three points for the school with a 
second and third respectively. By this time 
the final of the hundred had been called, and 
Boots fulfilled Mike’s prophecy and romped 
away from his field, winning the event by a 
full yard and scoring five points with a first 
for Cornwall again in even time. In the two- 
twenty, the experience and finishing powers of 
Black of Hill were a little too much for him, 
and Boots had to be content with second place. 

When the pistol cracked for the start of the 
half-mile, there did not seem to be a chance 
for Johnnie Morgan, Cornwall’s entry, to score 
a place; but after a game race, he staggered 
in an unexpected second, adding two more 
points to Cornwall’s mounting score. 

The hurdles hurt Cornwall more than any 
other event. Try as he would, Mike had not 
been able to teach any of the boys in a single 
season the hurdle step, which looks so easy 
and is really so difficult. Hill fattened her 
score by eleven points in those two events, and 


THE MILE RUN 


4i 


went well into the lead. The high jump was 
another event which helped Hill and hindered 
Cornwall. Not a point did her entries score. 
In the broad jump, Dick Johnstone hit the 
take-off only once in three tries, but that once 
carried him over twenty feet and gave Corn- 
wall another second. 

It was evident that the fight lay between 
Hill and Cornwall, and that, in order to win, 
it would be necessary for Cornwall to score 
firsts in all of the three remaining events. As 
the audience realized that the fight was be- 
tween the largest and the smallest of the en- 
tries, a wave of sympathy went out toward 
Cornwall. Flags flared and fluttered through 
the different sections everywhere, and there 
was a storm of cheers and shouts, all ending 
with “Cornwall!” Above them all, however, 
could still be heard the shattering " Brek-e - 
kek-kek!” cheer of the great Hill School, 
which had sent over a thousand rooters to the 
games that day. Old Mike, who had been 
coaching Dick at the jumping-pit, came hurry- 
ing in. 

“Everybody’s yellin’ for Cornwall!” he 


42 


THE BLUE PEARL 


said. “Everybody wants us to down Hill. 
We can do it! Now, fellows, a long cheer for 
Captain Bright, who ’s goin’ to win the pole- 
vault; for Joe Couteau, who’s got the five- 
mile in his pocket; and for good old Freddie 
Perkins, who ’s goin’ to end up by takin’ first 
place in the mile! Now all together!” 

The little team stood up and gathered 
around Mike, who was standing on the rub- 
bing-table. Some were covered with the 
grime and sweat of their races, others were 
still sick and faint from their efforts. Some 
had won and others had lost, but all alike 
joined in the long cheer of the Cornwall High 
School with the names of the last three com- 
petitors at the end. The echoes had hardly 
died away when the door burst open and in 
rushed old Jim Donegan, his hat off and his 
bristling gray hair standing up like the quills 
of a porcupine. He rushed to the rubbing- 
table, and, catching up the twelve-pound shot 
which lay there, banged the long-suffering 
table for attention. 

“Boys,” he yelled, “I ’m an old man and I 
have knocked all around the world and I ’ve 


THE MILE RUN 


43 


seen many a grand scrap in my time, but never 
have I seen such a set of young he-tigers as you 
fellows are! I ’m proud of every one of you! 
We Ve got these Hill School chaps licked to a 
frazzle. All we got to do is to win these last 
three events, an’ I ’ll tell the world — we ’■ re 
goin to do it! There ain’t nobody can down 
old Bill Bright or beat out Joe Couteau. 
They licked a gang of moonshiners, and 
they ’ll just eat up that Hill team. Moreover, 
I ’ve got a hunch right now that Freddie Per- 
kins gobbles up the mile. Them ’s my senti- 
ments!” and the old man banged the twelve- 
pound shot down on the table and rushed out 
again, to yell for Cornwall. 

While they were finishing the finals in the 
high and low hurdles, in neither of which 
Cornwall had won a place, Will Bright had 
been vaulting surely and steadily through the 
preliminary stages of that long-drawn-out 
event, the pole-vault. At eleven feet, all the 
competitors had dropped out except Will and 
an entry from Hopkins and Hill respectively. 
Once, twice, and three times each of the others 
essayed the bar, only to fail. 


44 


THE BLUE PEARL 


On his first try, Will soared up like a bird, 
with a perfect take-off. Then, just as he 
started the arching swing which was to carry 
him over, there was a splintering crack and the 
ash pole broke at some hidden flaw about five 
feet from the end. There was a shout of 
warning and horror from the spectators as 
Will’s body plunged down headlong toward 
the jagged point. The boy’s quick eye, how- 
ever, saw his danger even as he fell. With a 
writhing twist in mid air, he swung his body 
out toward the landing'-pit, just grazing the 
sharp fragment, which ripped through his 
jersey, tearing the skin of his left side. In- 
stantly the whole front of his running-shirt 
was stained with bright red. Half a dozen 
men rushed to pick him up, but Mike was 
there first of all. 

“Some one get a doctor!” shouted a badged 
official, bustling up. 

“I ’m going on,” panted Will, recovering 
his breath, which had been knocked out of him 
by the fall, “if I can get a pole.” 

“Say, Cornwall, you ’re a good sport!” said 
the defeated Hill entry. “Take my pole. 


THE MILE RUN 45 

I ’d rather be beaten by you than anybody I 
know.” 

“That’s the talk,” said old Mike, heartily, 
as Will shook hands with his late opponent. 
“There ’s good sporting blood in both of you.” 

The Hill pole was a built-up bamboo, with 
the strength and snap of a steel spring. With 
a good run, Will made a beautiful take-off. 
Up and up he rose in the air until he was level 
with the bar. Suddenly he slid his left hand 
up to his right with a quick snap, and his body 
arched up and over the bar. His progress 
back to the dressing-house was a triumph. 
Half-way back, they met Jim Donegan tearing 
along toward them, wearing the flowing and 
resplendent badge of an inspector of the 
course, which he had inveigled out of the 
management. His duties, as he understood 
them, were to run around the field and root 
early and often for Cornwall, in spite of every 
attempt on the part of other officials to stop 
him. 

“Five more points!” he chanted ecstatically, 
patting Will gently on his moist back. 
“We ’ve got ’em beat!” 


THE BLUE PEARL 


46 

Just as they reached the dressing-house, the 
five-mile event was announced. 

“Go to it, boy!” yelled old Jim to Joe Cou- 
teau, Cornwall’s only entry for that event. 
“Remember how you used to run down jack- 
rabbits in the Northwest. Hustle out and tear 
off five more points for Cornwall.” 

Joe grinned cheerfully around the circle as 
he laced on the pair of moccasins which, like 
that other great Indian distance-runner, Deer- 
foot, he wore in place of spiked shoes. These 
moccasins and his dark face made a great sen- 
sation. 

“Hi! hi!” bellowed the Hill School contin- 
gent. “Get on to the Injun, Big Chief, 
W oo-woo! Whoo-oo-oo-oo-oo !” and striking 
their mouths with their hands, they achieved 
what they fondly believed to be an Indian 
war-whoop. Although there were twelve 
entries, yet the crowd believed that there was 
only one man in the race. That was Lowell 
of Haverford, the record-holder who for two 
years had won the event easily. The only 
son of an old Boston family, he was much 
shocked that he should be expected to run 


THE MILE RUN 


47 

against an Indian. At the end of the first 
mile he led the bunch by fully fifty yards. 

Joe as he passed the starting-post for the 
fourth time began to increase his speed. One 
by one he cut down the men ahead of him, and 
by the time that the fifth quarter was finished 
he was abreast of the little bunch of five run- 
ners who were toiling along nearest the far- 
away leader. Then without an effort and 
with a swinging, easy gait he began to go 
through the field. One or two tried to fight 
him off, but the steady, even gait which ate 
up the ground like fire wore them down until 
he was running second to Lowell, who was 
now nearly a hundred yards in the lead. At 
the end of the third mile, Joe had cut this 
down to thirty ‘yards. As he swung past the 
starting-post at the beginning of the fifth and 
last mile, it was as if a mask had suddenly 
dropped from his impassive face, so keen and 
eager and confident it showed. The long tire- 
less lope quickened and quickened until 
Lowell heard the rapid, even pat-pat of moc- 
casined feet coming nearer and nearer. 
Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he 


THE BLUE PEARL 


48 

caught sight of the dark face of the Indian 
surging up beside him. Stung by the sight, 
he put on a burst of speed and for a hundred 
yards or so drew away well ahead of his 
opponent. Joe kept on unconcernedly with 
the same swinging, even gait. Without look- 
ing at his opponent, he seemed far more inter- 
ested in the shouting, cheering crowds in the 
grandstand. 

Soon the approaching beat of the moccasins 
stung Lowell to a new effort, which for a mo- 
ment carried him out of ear-shot. Yet even 
as he slackened his speed, the sound of the fly- 
ing feet behind him came relentlessly nearer 
and nearer, until the Indian’s even breathing 
was at his shoulder. Again he spurted, but it 
was a last effort, and in a few moments Joe was 
once more and for the last time abreast of him. 
As they ran neck and neck, the two were in 
strange contrast. Lowell’s face was wrinkled 
and drawn as he strained every nerve and 
muscle to hold his place, while the Indian, 
with his effortless gait, seemed to regard his 
exhausted rival with an amused curiosity. At 
the end of another lap the Indian quickened 


THE MILE RUN 


49 


his even stride and took the lead, drawing 
away from his opponent with every beat of 
his moccasined feet. Again and again Lowell 
spurted gallantly; and though now and then 
he gained some of his lost distance, the gap 
between himself and the leader kept widening. 
On the last lap Joe cut loose and covered the 
distance at almost sprinting speed, finishing 
fully half a lap ahead of Lowell and breaking 
the tape and the record at the same time. 
Then, to show how little the race had taken 
out of him, he kept on for an extra lap, cheered 
to the echo by every section in turn as he 
passed. Even the Hill delegation gave the 
little dark record-breaker a tremendous send- 
off. 

Cornwall had scored twenty-four points to 
twenty-five for Hill, and a roar of shouts and 
cheers swept across the field. Everything 
depended on the last race of the day — the 
mile-run. The Hill delegation, in spite of the 
frantic efforts of four fat policemen, surged 
out and dragged across the track their mascot, 
a reluctant bull pup wearing the Hill colors, 
thereby throwing an exceeding baneful hoo- 


THE BLUE PEARL 


50 

doo on all the entries save those of Hill. Not 
to be outdone, Cornwall pulled little Pop 
Smith across the same part of the track, kick- 
ing and squealing and struggling while his 
long white beard waved in the wind. Haver- 
ford had a band. So did Hill. Likewise 
Hopkins. And these bands played and tooted 
and fifed and shrilled and drummed and made 
every kind of noise that ever tortured the ear- 
drums of mankind. For fully fifteen minutes 
the pandemonium kept up, until the police- 
men and all of the officials, except one gray- 
haired inspector of the course, were worn out 
in their attempts to restore order. 

Only in the Cornwall dressing-room was 
there silence. Mike himself gave Fred a final 
rub-down, and every man on the team crowded 
around to pat him on the back and shake his 
hand and wish him luck. It was a very cold 
hand, clammy with the weary terror of wait- 
ing that frets into the courage of the bravest. 
Fred’s eyes, however, had a steady fire in them, 
and his face, although white, was set as steel. 

“It ’s up to you, my boy,” was all Mike said. 

“I ’ll do my best, Mike,” returned Fred, 


THE MILE RUN 


5i 


very quietly. Just then the door opened and 
in burst Mr. Sanford, quite different from the 
dignified principal of the Cornwall High 
School whom the boys saw every day. His 
hat was gone, his face was nearly as red as 
Jim Donegan’s, and his tousled hair stood up 
like the crest of a cockatoo. He hurried up 
to Freddie, panting as if he himself had just 
come from a race. In one hand he held two 
battered, scarred running-corks, in one of 
which was a large round hole. 

“Freddie,” he said, “these are my old mascot 
running-corks. I ’ve carried them in nearly 
a hundred races. They ’re yours now. 
Squeeze ’em hard and bring back the cham- 
pionship to old Cornwall to-night. That 
round hole,” he went on, “is for the middle 
finger of your right hand. Sink your nail into 
it deep when you see the tape in sight.” 

Johnnie Morgan was to run with Fred as a 
team-mate. As the two came out of the 
training-house, they stepped into a very tem- 
pest of sound. All the cheering before was 
like a whisper to the hoarse roars that swept 
back and forth across the little arena. Moran, 


THE BLUE PEARL 


52 

the Hill miler, — slight and beautifully built, 
with a mocking, resolute face, — although not a 
record-holder, had won the event the year be- 
fore in fast time. He was older than most of 
the other boys, and for two years had run on 
the team of a city athletic club. He had un- 
doubtedly more experience than any other 
entry there. The Cornwall entries had 
planned to have Morgan set the pace, keeping 
it slow enough to allow Fred’s sprint to have a 
chance in the straight. 

As the pistol cracked, John dashed across 
from the outside and took the lead. Unfor- 
tunately for Fred, Moran was an old hand at 
racing, and when he saw Morgan slow down 
his pace, jumped at once to the conclusion 
that the other Cornwall entry wanted to save 
himself for the finish. Racing up, he passed 
John and, taking the pole, skimmed down the 
back-stretch at a tremendous clip. With a 
sprint, Cornwall’s second string again won the 
lead as they neared the end of the first lap, but 
lost it the minute he tried to slow the pace. 
As they whirled past the starting-post in a 
bunch, Fred himself tried to set the pace, hop- 


THE MILE RUN 


53 

ing to slow it down. Yet hardly had he slack- 
ened a little, when Moran went past him with 
a rush. It was evident that he intended to 
make a runaway race of it from the very start 
and would take no chances in the home-stretch. 
Fred set his teeth grimly and buckled down to 
the task of following his pace. 

At the end of the half-mile Morgan dropped 
out. Moran still kept the lead, with Fred just 
back of him, while right behind Fred were the 
Haverford and Hopkins entries, running 
craftily, hoping that the leaders might run 
themselves off their feet before the finish. 
For the third time the first four swept past the 
starting-post, and began the bitter third quar- 
ter, that quarter which tests the very soul of a 
racer, when the ache of the distance makes the 
taxed muscles and the flagging brain alike cry 
for rest, with the finish still a weary way off. 
Moran quickened his pace a little, and Fred 
strained every muscle to hold his place. His 
chest felt as if bound with a choking iron band, 
and his legs began to acquire that strange, 
numb feeling which is the protest of sorely 
taxed muscles. 


54 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Now it was that the long, tiresome cross- 
country runs of the winter showed their effect. 
Back of all his exhaustion, Fred still had the 
feeling of something in reserve. Yet every 
stride seemed to rack his very vitals, and the 
numbness seemed to be stealing from his legs 
to his brain. Suddenly a great gong clanged. 
The leader had passed the starting-post and 
was beginning the last lap. The sound seemed 
to tap new reserves of energy in Fred’s lithe 
body, and he found himself plunging forward 
faster and faster as they whirled around the 
first curve into the back-stretch. At last came 
the final turn, and under a thunder of cheers 
the two turned into the back-stretch and 
quickened their speed. 

Just then from behind with a rush came up 
the Hopkins entry. On the outside he passed 
Fred and challenged Moran, who had drawn 
away a yard or so ahead. Neck and neck he 
raced with him down the stretch, but, with the 
finish still twenty yards away, suddenly 
plunged headlong, his laboring body unable 
to stand the strain which the untimely sprint 
had imposed upon it. He fell right across 


THE MILE RUN 


55 

Moran’s path, and the latter had to swerve out 
to avoid tripping over him. This was Fred’s 
chance. With a staggering plunge he shot 
forward on the inside, and in another second 
was running neck and neck with the leader. 
Only ten yards of terrible struggle lay between 
them and the thin red thread that marked the 
goal where the impassive judges and the 
timers, with stop-watches held aloft, stood. 
Fred’s legs seemed made of lead. All of his 
speed at the finish seemed to have been drained 
by the tremendous pace. Bright flashes 
darted before his eyes, while the shouts of the 
spectators seemed to come from afar. 

“Come on, Freddie! Come in! Come in, 
Cornwall!” he heard faintly. Moran led by 
an inch at the last yard, and both boys, with 
hot, misty eyes, saw ahead of them the thin red 
thread which seemed to waver and move back- 
ward. Gripping the mascot corks, Fred’s 
finger sank into the deep hole, and the feeling 
called him back to himself for the fraction of 
a second. Setting his teeth and gripping his 
corks until his knuckles showed white, he 
drew upon the last tiny fragment of reserve 


THE BLUE PEARL 


5 ^ 

power which he had left, and at the end of the 
last stride threw himself through the air like a 
diver. Even as he plunged unconscious, he 
felt the blessed pressure of the thread as it 
broke against his breast, a tiny inch before 
Moran’s up-raised foot. Then the arms of 
Mike and Donegan were around him as they 
carried him back to the dressing-room. 

“I knew it was in you. I knew,” old Mike 
said, but his voice broke even as he spoke. 

It seemed a long time after, although it was 
only a few minutes, when Freddie opened his 
eyes again. The first thing he saw were the 
admiring faces of Will and Joe. The first 
thing he heard was Will’s whisper: 

“You ’re going with us after the Blue 
Pearll” 


CHAPTER III 


OUTWARD BOUND 

A T last dawned the day when the Argo- 
nauts sailed away toward the sunset, 
like the crew that Jason captained 
when the world was young. Instead of the 
Argo , Cornwall’s Argonauts voyaged in the 
Super-parlor-Pullman-observation-private car 
Esmerelda, which belonged to Mr. Donegan, 
and which, through him, had been attached to 
the great Transcontinental Express. By rea- 
son, too, of Mr. Donegan, that celebrated train 
for the first time in its history would stop at 
Cornwall. Theretofore it had never even 
hesitated when it passed through. 

Everybody came to see them off. Strangely 
enough, too, every one from Chief Selectman 
Jimmy Wadsworth down to Jed Bunker, who 
tramped the town making baskets, knew that 
they were going pearling and when and where 
and how. Myron Prindle had inside infor- 
57 


58 THE BLUE PEARL 

mation that they were bound for the “Spanish 
Main.” He was not sure just where said 
Main might be, but presumed that it was 
somewhere in Spain. Anyway, he knew that 
it was full of pearls and pirates and that Mr. 
Donegan 'had chartered a schooner which Joe 
Couteau was to captain. The fact that Joe 
did n’t know a schooner from a gondola made 
no difference. Myron knew . Uncle Riley 
Rexford was just as positive that they were 
going after fresh-water pearls along the banks 
of the Yukon. He also had inside informa- 
tion. Mat Platt, the village dressmaker, was 
absolutely certain that they were bound for 
the South Seas. She had been told so by 
some one who knew all about it. She wished 
she could tell who it was, but she had promised 
she wouldn’t. Jessalie Jones, who wrote 
poetry, and had it printed under the initials 
“J. J.” in the Litchfield County Gazette, 
had it on good authority that the whole trip 
had something to do with a romance of Jud 
Adams’ youth. She refused to give her au- 
thority. In one thing all the stories agreed. 
That was — Pearls! Miss Jane Bronson, who 


OUTWARD BOUND 


59 


had taught drawing and English literature at 
the Cornwall High School from a time beyond 
which the memory of man runneth not, 
brought in Volume 15 of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica — P-Q — of the vintage of i860. 
She whispered that it contained a masterly 
monograph on pearls which she hoped the 
boys would find time to read on their trip. 
Guinea Potter’s mother brought a bottle of 
boneset-tea which she had brewed herself and 
which could be used either inside or outside 
and was warranted to cure everything that 
could be cured. It was a favorite Cornwall 
remedy and always very effective, probably 
because it had such an appalling taste that 
any one who swallowed a dose of it would for- 
get everything else. Old Hen Root, who lived 
over in the Hollow, and who had come to 
Cornwall from Saugatuck on Long Island 
Sound, brought a clam-hoe down to the sta- 
tion, which he insisted upon presenting to 
Will. 

“It may come in handy,” he remarked con- 
fidentially, “in case you want to get a mess of 
oysters” 


6o 


THE BLUE PEARL 


The Cornwall Horse Guards were there 
ready for the worst, and would have been very 
impressive, if Silas Ford’s horse had not 
balked right on the railroad tracks. As it was 
nearly train-time, the rest of the guard tried 
to haul him off by main force. The Corn- 
wall Band chose that particular moment to 
break loose. They tooted and banged and 
shrilled and squealed, until it sounded as if a 
boiler factory had blown up. At the very 
first explosion, Silas Ford’s horse, which had 
been bracing his feet and holding back with at 
least ten horse-power, whisked his tail, cleared 
the tracks, and was off down the road like a 
cyclone. As most of the other horses of the 
guards were hitched to him, the whole squa- 
dron disappeared around the corner in a cloud 
of dust and a confusion of “ Whoas !” At 
that moment a distant whistle was heard, and 
with a rushing roar, the rumble of mighty 
wheels and the hissing of sorely tried air- 
brakes, the majestic Transcontinental Express 
whirled around the curve and came to a full 
stop. Then it was that Fred’s mother, who 
was a widow, broke down. As she kissed her 


OUTWARD BOUND 


6 1 


boy good-by she was suddenly convinced that 
neither pearls nor prospects were worth the 
unknown risks of this far journey. 

“Don’t go, honey. Stay home with me,” 
she whispered. “I may never see you again.” 

It was a critical moment. Fred winked 
very hard and wondered whether, after all, 
the trip was worth while. It was Barbara 
Deering who made a diversion. Barbara had 
violet eyes, a mouth that turned up at the cor- 
ners and a voice that always made Fred think 
of the gurgling of a trout-brook. Moreover, 
one could never be certain as to just what 
Barbara was going to do next — which added 
to her attractiveness. To-day she had stood 
in a group of girls with her hands behind her 
as the good-bys were being said, and, at this 
critical moment, stepped forward with a great 
bunch of those rare rose-red orchids, the moc- 
casin-flower. She had gone five miles to find 
them before breakfast. These she handed to 
Fred and whispered so low that only he could 
hear, “Good-by; I’m very proud of you!” 
After that any backing out was impossible. 
Will’s father shook hands with him with that 


62 


THE BLUE PEARL 


indifference which fathers and sons show in 
public. Joe Couteau’s uncle was there with a 
package of the whitest, sweetest maple sugar 
in the world, which only the old charcoal- 
burner knew how to make in his little sugar- 
bush in the early spring. 

“You big fool to go,” he murmured affec- 
tionately, pressing the package into Joe’s 
hands. “Hurry up and come back.” 

Then Mr. Sanford and old Mike and Buck 
Masters, the village constable who had helped 
rescue Will and Joe from the burning cabin, 
and Uncle Riley Rexford, and Nathan Hart, 
the letter-carrier, with a mail-bag in his hand, 
and Virgil Jones the postmaster, and half a 
score of others pressed forward to shake the 
boys’ hands and wish them luck. Only old 
Jud Adams stood apart from the rest of the 
crowd. 

“Ain’t there no one who ’s goin’ to give me 
flowers or sugar nor nothin’?” he complained. 

“Sure there be!” shouted old Jim Donegan, 
who had arrived late, as usual, pushing his 
way through the crowd, red-hot with haste and 
excitement. “Even if none of these good- 


OUTWARD BOUND 63 

lookin’ girls will give you anything, I will. 
You ’re all the time complainin’ that you can’t 
find any smokin’ tobacco in Cornwall that ’s 
got any taste to it. I ’ve sent down South and 
here ’s a package of black perique that will 
just about take the top of your old gray head 
off,” and Big Jim shook the old trapper’s hand 
affectionately and slapped the boys on their 
backs. 

“Good-by, fellows,” he shouted as if he were 
hailing a ship at sea. “Good luck! I wish I 
were goin’ with you instead of this good-for- 
nothin’ old cripple of a Jud Adams.” 

“What do you mean by such talk, Jim Done- 
gan?” yelled Jud, clutching his perique in one 
hand and much incensed at this public refer- 
ence to his age. “Thank ye for the tobacco, 
but when you come to talk about me bein’ old, 
I want you to understand — ” but just then the 
whistle shrilled impatiently, the majestic con- 
ductor, who had been regarding Cornwall 
tolerantly, swept back the crowd, the porter 
pushed the boys, clam-hoe, encyclopaedia, 
boneset-tea, and all into the car, and with an- 
other bang from the band the Argonauts of 


6 4 THE BLUE PEARL 

Cornwall were off. With a shriek of the 
whistle which echoed through the hills, the 
train whirled away toward the enchantments, 
the adventures, and the waiting lands which, 
since Time began, have always beckoned to 
Argonauts from beyond the sunset. 

Then came long and varied days of sight- 
seeing from the observation platform. At 
first, Jud insisted upon shaking hands with the 
head waiter whenever they went into the din- 
ing-car, much to that dignitary’s embarrass- 
ment, and always gave the conductor a mili- 
tary salute as a tribute to his blue and brass 
uniform. The library, the baths, the brass 
bedsteads, the great leather-lined lounging 
chairs, and all the other equipment of a pluto- 
cratic private car were a source of never-end- 
ing delight and amusement to the old trapper. 
Most of all, however, the whole crowd en- 
joyed the observation platform at the rear of 
the car. There, tipped back in comfortable 
chairs, with their feet up on the brass rail, as 
cities, prairies and mountains whirled by, they 
would talk by the hour, and old Jud would 
spin them yarns about the buffalo herds, the 


OUTWARD BOUND 


65 

Indians and the antelope which he saw on his 
first trip across the continent in the seventies. 

“Joe,” said Will, one day, after one of Jud’s 
yarns, “you ’ve never told me how you man- 
aged to come across the continent. Where did 
you live first, and how did you get East by 
yourself?” 

For a long minute Joe made no answer, but 
sat and watched the steel rails spin a shining 
track behind them across the golden wheat- 
fields of Dakota. 

“I lived,” he said at last, “on the Island of 
Akotan. That mean ‘Island of the Free 
People’ in my talk,” he explained. “My 
father was a French trapper, who joined our 
tribe and married my mother. I told you 
’bout his being killed by bear,” he went on, 
turning to Will, who nodded as he remem- 
bered the talks around the camp-fire that he 
and Joe used to have when they were winning 
the cabin for the Cornwall Scouts. “After 
that,” went on Joe, “my mother take me one 
day across to the mainland where there was a 
mission-school. She tell me if anything hap- 
pen to her, I was to leave the tribe and go to 


66 


THE BLUE PEARL 


this school. When I learned enough, I was 
to travel and travel and travel east until I 
found my father’s brother. She gave me writ- 
ing, which my father had left, which showed 
how to find him.” Then Joe came to a stop 
and looked long into the distance. “My 
mother’s uncle, he Shuman of the Free Peo- 
ple,” he went on after a moment. 

“Is that the same as the Chief?” inquired 
Fred. 

“No,” said Joe, “Shuman is higher than 
Chief. There may be two or more Chiefs but 
only one Shuman. Chiefs look after every- 
day things, but Shuman he say when there be 
war or peace, he medicine-man for tribe, and 
have charge of all big things. After my 
mother’s uncle find Pearl he go on long, long 
journey south to place where the Free People 
had come from a hundred of years before. 
He want to see the Great Ones, and learn how 
to keep his people free and brave and good. 
While he gone, my mother die, like I tell you,” 
said Joe, turning to Will, who nodded without 
speaking. The Indian boy’s eyes flashed and 
his hands clinched hard for a moment. 


OUTWARD BOUND 67 

“When I come back,” he went on after a long 
pause, “and found she had died and my uncle 
gone and other chiefs trying to take his place, 
who would n’t dared have spoken to him stand- 
ing up, I tell tribe what I thought. No one 
answer me back. Then I take canoe and pro- 
visions and gun and leave ’em all and paddle 
and paddle and walk and walk until I come to 
where mission-school was. There I stay and 
learn to read and write and be like white 
boys.” 

“Did they send you across to your father’s 
uncle?” questioned Jud, much interested. 

“No,” said Joe after a long pause, “they 
not have the money to do that.” 

“Well, who did send you?” persisted Jud. 

“Cheesay” responded the boy, finally. 

“Cheesay!” exclaimed Jud. “That’s the 
Chippewa for lucivee.” 

“You mean the Canada lynx,” broke in 
Will. 

“Yes,” responded the old man. “I call ’em 
lucivees, and the French trappers call ’em 
loup-cervier, but their name in Chippewa is 
‘ cheesay / ” 


68 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Tell us how the lynx sent you,” begged 
Fred, who had been sitting an interested list- 
ener to the whole conversation. Joe hesitated 
a moment. 

“Well, it was this way,” he said. “I want 
to be like white boys. My mother’s people 
cowards and dogs to let her starve. My uncle 
gone. I remember she tell me to go back to 
my father’s people. At the mission-school 
they tell me it take much money — two, 
three hundred dollars — to travel down to Sitka 
and take boat and railroad out East. They 
not have any money. I not have any money. 
So I start out to earn my fare by trapping. 
At first I not have very good luck. I trap and 
trap and hunt and hunt, but catch very little.” 

“It ’s a wonder you caught anythin’,” inter- 
jected Jud. “Trappin’s no game for kids. It 
takes a grown man with good brains and a 
lot of experience to be a real trapper,” and 
Jud puffed out his chest consciously. 

Joe looked at the little old man quizzically. 
“Yes,” he said at last, “it takes fine, big, hand- 
some, smart man to be good trapper — like old 
man Jud, but I did the best I could. I caught 


OUTWARD BOUND 69 

a few muskrat and once in a while a mink, but 
they hardly brought enough to pay for my 
traps and my grub and my ammunition. 
Then one day there came a heavy snow. It 
snow and snow until ground covered three feet 
deep. I start out one morning with my gun to 
follow up trap-route. Pretty soon out from 
the woods I come to fox-trail.” 

“How do you tell a fox-trail?” asked Fred. 

“Tracks like those of dog,” explained Joe, 
“except they run in straight line and don’t 
spraddle out like dog and are finer and clearer 
cut and never show any drag-mark on the 
snow, for fox lift his paw high while dog 
sometimes drag it. This trail,” went on Joe, 
“showed that the fox had sunk deep, every 
jump. He seemed to be running hard, and 
once in a while I could see mark of his brush 
on snow, showing that he was tired; for 
while he is fresh, a fox never lets his brush 
touch the snow. I wonder at first why fox go 
so fast when snow so deep. At last I see the 
reason. Near the fox-trail runs a line of big, 
padded cat-tracks, about twice the size of or- 
dinary cat. Only they don’t show four toes 


THE BLUE PEARL 


70 

like cat-track does. I knew then that it was 
trail of cheesay.” 

“What made them padded?” inquired Will. 

“A lynx wears snow-shoes in the winter,” 
interposed Jud, before Joe had a chance to an- 
swer. “Each toe is covered with a big ball 
of fluffy hair which spreads out nearly flat, so 
that a lynx can bound over the snow, hardly 
sinking in at all.” 

“That ’s what this one was doing,” went on 
Joe. “At every jump he would go five or six 
feet and only sink in a few inches, while the 
fox went floundering through the snow up to 
his shoulders. The tracks zigzagged in and 
out through the trees, as if the old fox was 
trying to dodge, and once in a while he ’d make 
a stand against some tree, but always the lynx 
would drive him out into the open again. At 
last they led to little lake all frozen over and 
covered level with snow, and there out in the 
middle I saw two animals fighting. I hurried 
up close on my snow-shoes, and just as I got 
there, cheesay gave big jump in air and 
clipped Old Man Fox right over head with 


OUTWARD BOUND 


7i 

his claws and buried him in the snow. Be- 
fore he could get out, old lynx landed on top 
of him and bite him through the neck and kill 
him. By that time I was right close to them, 
and I yell loud to drive lynx off before he rip 
up fox’s fur. Cheesay very much surprised, 
give a jump away, and spit and yowled and 
crouched and pretended that he was going to 
spring at me. My gun was loaded, and no- 
body ever afraid of Old Man Cheesay, any- 
how. I look down at fox, and what you sup- 
pose I saw?” 

“What?” chorused the rest of the party. 

“Silver fox!” exclaimed Joe, impressively. 
“Black, black as night, and soft and thick and 
heavy. The longest hairs were tipped with 
white, so that the fur looked as if it were all 
frosted with silver, while the big jet-black 
brush had a silver tip.” 

“Oh, boy!” broke in Jud. “Think of that 
luck! I trapped nigh on to twenty years be- 
fore I got a silver fox, and then he was n’t a 
very good one.” 

“Well,” went on Joe, “they told me at the 


THE BLUE PEARL 


72 

school that this one was the best silver fox that 
had ever been turned in there. They gave me 
three hundred dollars for it.” 

“Which was about a third of what it was 
worth,” commented Jud. 

“It was enough to take me to Cornwall, any- 
way,” finished Joe. 

“Didn’t you get the lynx skin, too?” in- 
quired Fred. 

Joe looked at him reprovingly. “That just 
like white man,” he said at last; “always selfish 
and ungrateful. When animal make present 
to Indian, Indian remember it and play square 
with animal. That why Indian so much bet- 
ter hunter and trapper than white man and get 
so much more game. Cheesay he give me 
black fox; he send me across continent; he 
bring me back to my father’s people. You 
think for that I kill cheesay? No!” and Joe 
regarded the abashed Fred sternly. “I take 
out my knife and skin fox right there in snow, 
while cheesay wait and watch me. Then I 
give him carcass. He say, ‘Thank you,’ and 
I leave him and never kill another lynx and 
never will.” 


OUTWARD BOUND 


73 

“That ’s the reason,” exclaimed Will, “that 
you never helped me the time that old lynx 
jumped over me and scratched me up when we 
were out winning the cabin for the Cornwall 
scouts! I never understood why you didn’t 
clip him one when I missed him, but now I 
see the reason.” 

Joe nodded silently. 

“How did the old lucivee say thank you?” 
inquired Fred, inquisitively. 

Joe opened his mouth wide and gave a long, 
low “Meow” followed in quick succession by 
half a dozen others, each one rising in pitch 
and volume, and the whole ending with three 
terrific screeches which brought the porter, 
the waiter, and even the majestic conductor 
himself running from the car ahead. It was 
the yowl song of the mating lynx, and it came 
so suddenly that Fred and Will almost tipped 
over backward in their chairs. Only old Jud 
was unmoved. He regarded the imperturb- 
able Joe admiringly. 

“You sure have got that lucivee love-song 
down fine,” he said. “I ’d have sworn that 
when you gave that good loud piercing yowl 


THE BLUE PEARL 


74 

there was an old bobcat in this car if I had n’t 
seen you do it.” 

“If that’s the way Old Man Bobcat talks 
when he ’s grateful,” said Fred, “I ’d hate to 
hear him when he ’s mad.” 

After the train officials had become con- 
vinced that no murder was being done and had 
retired, Will was moved to a reminiscence 
himself anent silver foxes. 

“There was a boy named Bill Peebles,” he 
began, “who once lived in Cornwall, over on 
Dibble Hill. He went to the High School a 
couple of terms or so and then his folks moved 
away. Peebles was quite a hunter, and one 
day in November he climbed Pond Hill, 
thinking that he might get a shot at a deer up 
in the old sheep-pasture at the top. As he was 
coming out of the edge of the woods, all of a 
sudden he saw a jet-black fox just ahead of 
him. The wind was blowing from the fox, 
and so it had n’t heard him or scented him at 
all. Peebles crouched down in the bushes and 
cocked his rifle and drew a careful bead on the 
fox about fifty yards away. He was just go- 
ing to press the trigger,” went on Will, 


OUTWARD BOUND 


75 

dramatically, “when out of a corner of his eye 
he saw something move over on the edge of 
the woods, and out into the pasture stepped a 
fine buck, just about the same distance away as 
the fox. Old Sport Peebles was up in the air. 
First he sighted at the fox and then he sighted 
at the buck. He could shoot one, but he sure 
could n’t get the other. At last, he figured 
out that the buck was bigger, and so he aimed 
carefully and dropped it in its tracks with a 
bullet just back of the fore shoulder. At the 
first crack of the rifle, the fox was gone. Bill 
Peebles got home with the buck, but when his 
folks found that he had let a thousand-dollar 
silver fox escape, they came near taking his 
gun away from him.” 

“I should think they would,” snorted Jud. 
“Any Cornwall boy over seven ought to know 
that a black fox is the most valuable fur in the 
world, bar one.” 

“What ’s the one?” asked Fred. 

“■Kahlan,” said Jud. 

“What ’s a kahlan?” 

“Bo-bear.” 

“Come again,” said Fred. 


7 6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Well, sea-otter then,” said Jud, “since 
you ’re so ignorant. I suppose a good one now 
would bring pretty nigh ten thousand dollars, 
while a silver fox might get as high as five 
thousand.” 

“Me for the sea-otter!” exclaimed Will. “I 
did n’t know that there was such an expensive 
animal on earth. Well, anyway, coming back 
to Bill Peebles, he moved, soon after that 
happened, and I don’t know what became of 
him, but I never saw a boy so sorry over any- 
thing. If he lives to be a hundred, he ’ll never 
stop regretting that black fox.” 

As the train sped across the plains and into 
the country beyond, Jud became much excited. 
Towns and cities he remembered as trading- 
stations, cattle-depots and mining-camps. 
Then one evening the train rumbled into 
Spokane, and Jud was full of reminiscences. 

“Do you see that stone shed?” he inquired, 
pointing to a tumble-down building not far 
from the station. “Well, boys, the last time I 
was here that was a smoke-house. There 
was n’t any railroad and there was n’t any city. 
Where these tracks run was a stage route. 


OUTWARD BOUND 


77 

There were twenty-five or thirty houses and 
dance-halls and a hotel called San Francisco 
House. It was about fifty yards away from 
that smoke-house.” 

The old man paused dramatically. 

“Go on, Jud,” urged Will, “let’s have the 
story of the smoke-house.” 

“Yes, Jud,” chimed in Fred, “I ’ll believe it 
if it kills me.” 

The old man regarded him sternly. 

“You ’ll get into trouble some of these days, 
young fellow,” he said austerely, “with your 
fresh insinuhendoes,” and he eyed him se- 
verely. Fred bowed his head meekly. 

“Go on, boss,” he murmured contritely. 
With a few indignant puffs, old Jud resumed 
his interrupted story. 

“In the stage along with us,” he went on, 
“was an Englishman. He wore a long plaid 
ulster that would have made Joseph’s coat look 
faded, an’ a round, shiny piece of glass seemed 
to have grown into one of his eyes. We tried 
to draw the critter out just for the fun o’ 
hearin’ him talk, for he kind o’ bleated an’ 
used funny soundin’ words. At last he shut 


THE BLUE PEARL 


78 

up like a clam, an’ we most forgot him. It 
was gettin’ toward dark when we stopped to 
change horses at the San Francisco House. 
Spokane was an awful rough place in those 
days,” and Jud stopped to charge his pipe 
afresh with some of Big Jim’s perique. “All 
of a sudden,” he resumed after a series of quick 
puffs, like a freight-engine starting, “we saw 
that Britisher walkin’ off by himself with his 
hands in his pockets, as unconcerned as if he 
were in London. Just as he got opposite that 
smoke-house, a big chap jumps out from be- 
hind it, shoves a gun into his face, an’ wants 
his money quick. The Englishman looked so 
funny an’ helpless with his mouth open an’ 
that eye-glass an’ ulster, that even the hold-up 
man could n’t keep from grinnin’. Before we 
could get to them, there was a shot fired, an’ 
who do you suppose went down?” 

“The tourist, of course,” said Will. 

“That ’s what we thought,” responded Jud; 
“but when we got there, it was the hold-up 
man who was lyin’ on his face an’ the English- 
man standin’, with his hands still in his 
pockets, starin’ down at him out of that glass 


OUTWARD BOUND 


79 


eye of this. Come to find out, he carried a 
short Derringer revolver; an’ instead of 
puttin’ up his hands, he ’d shot right through 
his coat. It was kind of expensive, but mighty 
effective. He got the robber right through 
the shoulder,” finished Jud, “an’ he was the 
most surprised hold-up man you ever saw. 
When we turned him over to the sheriff, he 
said it had served him right for trustin’ to ap- 
pearances.” 

It was not until toward the end of the trip 
that a hotbox gave Fred a chance to distin- 
guish himself. The train had been whirling 
at full speed across a wide plateau, when it 
came to a sudden stop with much crashing and 
clanking and wheezing of air-brakes. The 
Argonauts hurried out, to find that it would 
take over an hour to repair damages. Glad 
of a chance to stretch their legs, they started 
to explore a dry, sandy plain studded with 
bunches of coarse grass. As they passed one 
of the grass-clumps, there sounded in front 
of them a deep, fierce hiss. Close by Jud’s 
foot, the bloated, swollen body of a fearsome 
snake upreared itself. It was almost white in 


8o 


THE BLUE PEARL 


color, blotched and spotted with bands and 
streaks of velvety brown, and each scale had 
a little ridge running down its center. The 
snake’s snout was turned upward in a sharp, 
curved horn, and its black, lidless eyes seemed 
to flash as the hideous head flattened until it 
was nearly as wide as the palm of Joe’s hand. 
As the scales on the snake’s neck opened out, 
they showed the golden-yellow skin between, 
until the serpent’s head and neck seemed all 
aflame as it struck out toward them, a picture 
of blind, venomous rage. As it struck, the 
snake hissed loud enough to be heard a hun- 
dred feet away. Jud probably broke the 
world’s record for the standing back broad- 
jump. Will said afterward that he sailed 
through the air like a bird. 

“Keep away, boys,” Jud shouted. “Some- 
body get a stick or a stone. That’s a sand- 
viper, and he ’s pizener than a rattlesnake. 
Don’t let his breath touch you. It’s nigh as 
bad as his bite!” 

Will and Joe needed no warning. Neither 
one of them knew much about snakes, and 
their one experience with the timber rattle- 


OUTWARD BOUND 


snake in their adventures in the woods had 
given them a profound distrust of all snake- 
kind. Then it was that Fred came to the 
front. Snakes were his specialty. Waving 
the rest of them back with a noble gesture, he 
strode right up to the infuriated serpent. 

“Get back, boy, he ’ll kill you!” piped Jud 
from the far background. 

Fred not only did not retreat, but actually 
stretched out his hand, palm up, toward the 
sharp-curved snout of the bloated snake. 
With a tremendous hiss, the infuriated rep- 
tile apparently struck him violently on the flat 
of his hand. None of the spectators, how- 
ever, noticed that the snake’s mouth was tight 
shut. A gasp of horror came from Jud, while 
Joe and Will prepared to interfere. 

“You thought he bit me that time,” said 
Fred, turning to them. “It only shows that 
the hand is quicker than the eye.” 

“Don’t be a fool, Fred,” interposed Will. 
“He ’ll get you next time.” 

“There’s no danger,” returned Fred, pom- 
pously. “I Ve a charm which will make this 
snake kill himself and then come to life.” 


82 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Before the boys could stop him, he stretched 
out his right hand and tapped the snake sev- 
eral times on the sharp end of his up-curved 
snout, muttering some unintelligible words at 
the same time. It was as he said. The 
bloated serpent stopped hissing, and, turning 
over and over, seemed to writhe in terrible 
agony. Finally, it pulled a coil of its twist- 
ing body through its wide open jaws, and, with 
a few convulsive shudders, stretched itself out 
with its black-striped, white belly upward, ap- 
parently dead. There was a murmur of ad- 
miration from the rest of the party. 

“How did you do it, Fred?” queried Will. 

“That kid really has got somethin’ to him,” 
muttered Jud, while even Joe was inclined to 
believe that Fred had stumbled on some bit of 
the Indian magic in which, in spite of his 
white training, he firmly believed. 

“That ’s nothing,” said Fred, patronizingly. 
“Step back behind that bush, and in a moment 
or so I ’ll bring him to life.” 

Stretching both hands palm up toward the 
sky, he made a few mystic gestures over the 


OUTWARD BOUND 83 

motionless snake and then joined the others 
behind the bush. One, two, three full min- 
utes passed. Suddenly a shudder passed 
through the motionless body of the snake. 
Then its head was raised slightly from the 
ground and it peered all around. Seeing no 
one in sight, it flopped over and started to 
wriggle its way into the grass, when Fred 
rushed out and secured it. The boys and Jud 
were vastly impressed. 

“I never believed it was in you,” said Jud, 
as, from a safe distance, he regarded the snake, 
which was now peacefully coiled around 
Fred’s arm. 

“Tell us the charm,” demanded Will. 

“Well,” said Fred, “if you fellows would 
study any good book on snakes, you ’d find all 
the charm you need there. You ’d read there 
that this is the puff-adder, or hog-nose snake, 
or sand-viper, as Jud calls it, or spreading- 
adder or blow-snake or flat-headed adder, for 
it goes by all these names. You would also 
find out that it ought to be called the bluff- 
adder. It never bites. It never opens its 


84 THE BLUE PEARL 

mouth when it strikes. It tries to scare 
people, but it ’s really a gentle, harmless, 
well-behaved snake.” 

There was a long pause. 

“It don’t look it,” said Jud. 


CHAPTER IV 

THE FREE PEOPLE 

A T last and at last the continent was 
crossed. At the end of the longest 
L wharf in Port Townsend, on Puget 
Sound, the Argonauts met Captain Nord of 
the timber-tug Bear , the staunchest of all of 
Mr. Donegan’s lumber-fleet. The captain 
had cruised and prospected for timber, gold, 
furs, copper, fossils, and everything else that 
meant money, from Puget Sound clear to 
Point Barrow in the Arctic Ocean, and knew 
the far Northwest as well as any living white 
man. He was short, thick-set, and silent, with 
a smooth-shaven face, a mouth that shut like a 
trap, and wintry blue eyes, which could flash 
like steel on occasion. Big Jim had written 
the captain full directions, and he had made 
ready for the party a complete equipment 
which included food, ammunition, clothes, 
and two of the best canoes that money could 
8s 


86 


THE BLUE PEARL 

buy, since the last part of the trip had to be 
under paddle-power. 

Followed long days and weeks as the little 
steamer plowed its way through the North 
Pacific Ocean until they reached the little 
island of Attoo, the last and loneliest island 
of all the Aleutian group. Jud knew the 
place, for he had been there many years ago to 
trap blue foxes. 

“We ’re gettin’ into the sunset!” he said, as 
the island loomed into sight. “You fellows 
think that San Francisco is far west. Attoo 
is three thousand miles west of that. It ’s the 
westernmost land in North America.” 

From Attoo they zigzagged northward in 
and out among islands large and small. Some 
had snow-covered peaks which towered far up 
into the sky, or showed smoking volcanoes or 
crystal glaciers which flowed down their sides 
like rivers of ice. Others were flat and bare 
and barren. Back and forth the little steamer 
circled and doubled through blue-green and 
whitish-gray waters and always among a maze 
of islands ranging from large ones many miles 
across down to those which were hardly more 


THE FREE PEOPLE 87 

than barren rocks set in lonely seas, surf-beaten 
and tempest-swept. Among them all the Bear 
kept steadily onward, circling and doubling 
through labyrinthine passages and across un- 
charted sounds and little bays. Past them, at 
times, floated vast icebergs, snow-white, with 
blue veins running through them, which con- 
trasted with the deep reds, warm grays, and 
rich browns and yellows of the granite and 
sandstone cliffs, while beyond them was the 
gleam of soft green grass or the steel-blue of 
glacier ice. Then came a morning of that 
crystalline clearness which only dawns in the 
far North, and they could see looming up 
against the horizon a vast island, separated 
from them by a mass of reefs and rocks and 
islets. It showed black against the blue 
water, and a white coverlet thrown across its 
dark form showed where a range of snow- 
covered mountains ran. 

“This is as far as I go,” announced Captain 
Nord. “You fellows will have to make the 
rest of the trip in the canoes. I ’d pile up the 
old steamer on the reefs if I went any nearer. 
That’s Akotan. They say that it’s a wild, 


88 


THE BLUE PEARL 


fierce place where no white men have ever 
been, and I certainly hate to let you kids go in 
there alone.” 

Joe, who had been leaning on the rail star- 
ing raptly at the island, spoke up. 

“No fear,” he said. “The Free People live 
there. They not hurt any one who I bring.” 

“The Free People?” questioned the captain. 
“What are they? I ’ve lived with Innuits and 
Aleuts and Kadiakers and Koloshes. Are 
they any of them?” 

“Koloshes are biting dogs,” returned Joe, 
scornfully. “Kadiakers are stupider than sea- 
lions. Innuits are children who never think 
alike twice, and the Aleuts are sheep. But 
the Free People, the Free People are men!” 

A few minutes later the two canoes were 
launched, the equipment stored away in them, 
and Joe and Will prepared to take their place 
in one, while Jud and Fred followed in the 
other. 

“Two months from to-day,” said the cap- 
tain, “I ’ll be back. There ’s a mission- 
station over there on Kadiak Island about ten 
miles from here. Jud knows the place. I ’ll 


THE FREE PEOPLE 89 

call for you there — and I hope I find you!” he 
added in an undertone. 

There was a chorus of farewells from the 
crew, four paddles struck the water together, 
and the Argonauts were on the last lap of 
their journey. Half an hour later a trail of 
smoke on the horizon was all that they could 
see of the Bear. The hours passed as they 
paddled their way among the crowded islets 
through a landlocked sound guarded by snow- 
covered mountains whose tops touched the 
sky and down whose sides the melting snow 
ran in hundreds of little cataracts. As the 
streams, clear as crystal and cold as winter, 
dashed into the green-and-blue sound the fresh 
water showed white as milk. On the adven- 
turers went through the sullen grandeur of 
mountain peaks and the dread of smoking vol- 
canoes. Sometimes they were tangled in a 
maze of rocks and reefs through which the 
water swirled in dangerous tide-rips. Yet al- 
ways Joe brought them through unerringly by 
safe channels and calm courses. Some of the 
hidden dangers of those treacherous waters, 
however, they could not avoid. Toward the 


90 


THE BLUE PEARL 


end of the morning, after they had passed out 
of the sound into a bay beyond, the smooth 
glassy water suddenly broke into foam all 
around them. A moment later it was flecked 
with white-caps and boiled and bubbled in a 
tangle of currents which tossed the light canoes 
like chips here and there. 

“Look out!” shouted Joe. “Paddle away 
from shore!” 

For a time it seemed as if both canoes were 
trapped in the sudden mesh of surging waters 
which threatened to engulf them or drive them 
on one of the near-by reefs. For half an hour 
they paddled desperately toward the open 
sea, but without being able to escape the clutch 
of the surging waters. Little by little the 
raging currents dragged them shoreward and 
nearer to the black fangs of the waiting reef. 
Suddenly, when they were almost exhausted 
by the sustained burst of paddling, the roaring 
tangle of currents and whirlpools smoothed 
themselves out, the waves went down, and the 
little bay lay calm and smiling as before. 

“Whew!” grunted Will, wiping the sweat 


THE FREE PEOPLE 91 

from his forehead. “What was that, any- 
way?” 

“That sea-puss,” responded Joe, panting, as 
he leaned on his paddle. “Sometimes current 
shifts and runs against tide and makes sea-puss. 
It never lasts very long.” 

“It lasted long enough for me,” gasped 
Fred, from the rear canoe. “I was pretty 
nearly all in.” 

“Yes,” joined in Jud, “I ’d never make a pet 
of these sea-pusses! Me for a gentler breed.” 

Beyond the bay where the fierce puss from 
the sea had tried to claw them, they paddled 
on through the panorama of sea and sky and 
mountain which unfolded before them as they 
passed island after island. Suddenly the 
silence was broken by a bellow from the prac- 
tical Jud. 

“Hey, Chief!” he yelled, “when do we eat? 
I haven’t had anything since 1812. This 
scenery ’s fine, but it ain’t very fillin’.” 

“In few minutes now,” called back Joe. 
“We land soon for lunch.” 

“Can’t be too soon for me,” grumbled Jud. 


92 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Followed another stretch of paddling, and 
then before their delighted eyes broke into 
view a little islet more beautiful than anything 
that the boys had ever seen before. Com- 
pared with the group of barren, rocky, reef- 
bound islands in which it was set, it seemed 
like a green oasis of that lonely northern sea. 
Less than half a mile across, in its midst tow- 
ered a peak broken into cliffs and ledges of 
many-colored rock. 

“This Half-Way Island,” explained Joe, 
as the canoes grounded on a hard white beach. 
“It half-way between Akotan and main chain 
of islands.” 

“It looks good to me!” shouted Fred, as 
they scrambled ashore with the hamper of pro- 
visions, after beaching the canoes beyond the 
high-water mark. Joe led them to a little 
pocket of soft green grass which stretched out 
from the slope of the cliff and through which 
flowed a clear stream. Beside the brook the 
grass was all red with the blood-dipped leaves 
of the painted-cup and purple-and-gold with 
iris and blue with gentian. Before Joe could 
stop him, Fred lay down to drink of the clear 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


93 

water from the flowing spring and sprang up 
with a shout of pain, puffing and blowing like 
a porpoise. 

“It ’s boiling hot,” he gasped. 

“Sure it is, greedy pig!” reproved the In- 
dian. “You come with me to next spring and 
I get you nice cup of hot chicken soup.” 

“Say, I ’m in on this!” called Jud, hurrying 
up. 

“Me too!” chimed in Will. “I suppose 
you Ve got a cafeteria hidden somewhere in 
the rocks. After the soup, I ’d like a little 
vanilla and strawberry ice-cream mixed.” 

Joe made no reply, but handed each one a 
tin cup and then commandeering salt and 
pepper shakers led the way toward the clifif. 
Some distance from the main stream a smok- 
ing spring bubbled out from under a boulder. 
Its steaming water showed a clear gold. Joe 
dipped up a cupful, shook in a liberal supply 
of pepper and salt, stirred it with a stick until 
it was cool enough to drink, and handed it to 
Jud, who tasted it warily. An expression of 
pleased surprise stole over his face, and he 
sipped more and more of the steaming con- 


94 


THE BLUE PEARL 


tents, then tipped his head back and drank and 
drank until every drop was gone. 

“’Chicken soup it is!” he said. 

In a minute the other two had filled their 
mugs, and were not satisfied until they had 
swallowed two or three cups of the clear liquid 
which, with the addition of seasoning, was 
hardly to be distinguished from the soup 
which Joe had named. He could give no ex- 
planation of the spring nor from what com- 
pound of minerals it had its flavor. 

“It always been here,” he said. “We used 
to stop and drink here when crossing over. 
Winter-time, when cold from long paddle, it 
taste mighty good.” 

The boys threw themselves down on the 
soft grass and attacked the defenceless hamper. 

Over their heads and around the edges of 
the cliff whirled and wheeled birds whose 
variety and rarity delighted the heart of Will, 
who was the bird expert of his troop. There 
were skuas, those beautiful pirates of the air, 
and, up on the rock, nesting murres with black 
heads and white bodies, looking like rows of 
champagne bottles as they sat, each one brood- 


THE FREE PEOPLE 95 

in g its single egg. Joe told them that the big 
green eggs of this bird are so tough that the 
Indians, when they gathered them, threw them 
into baskets like potatoes, and that the smaller 
end is long and sharp-pointed, so that, when 
the wind blows against the cliffs, the eggs 
move in a circle with the little ends always 
pointing toward the center instead of rolling 
off the ledges. Then there were puffins, or 
sea-parrots, strange birds with triangular 
bills and the sides of their heads ashy white 
and which dig burrows and nest underground. 
The Leach’s petrel, a sooty-brown bird with 
forked tail having a white patch at its base, 
was also there — nesting, too, in burrows which 
ran in under the turf just below the grass- 
roots and ended in a sort of pocket where its 
single egg was laid. Will had seen these 
birds far out at sea on the voyage thither, but 
had never expected to find them nesting. As 
they lay watching the swirling clouds of birds 
screaming above them on the cliff-sides, Will 
pointed out to them a kittiwake gull, with 
gleaming white head and tail and pearl-gray 
wings and back, which was coming in from 


THE BLUE PEARL 


9 6 

the sea with a small fish in its beak. Suddenly 
a dark bird, which had been soaring high in 
the sky, shot down through the air like a flash 
straight toward the kittiwake as it flapped 
leisurely along toward the cliff. Although 
the stranger flew like a hawk as it neared the 
water, the boys could plainly see that it was 
also a dark, blackish-brown gull, with a white 
band across the under sides of the wings near 
the tip. 

“It ’s the jiddy hawk, one of the jaeger 
gulls,” explained Will. “It lives on the fish 
that other birds catch.” 

Even as he spoke, the kittiwake gave a 
startled cry and flew for its life. In and out 
among the cliffs, twisting and turning, it 
screamed and flapped and dodged, but always 
just over it like a black shadow hung its pur- 
suer with long claws stretched out, always 
threatening, but never striking. Back and 
forth they went, and still the kittiwake clung 
to its fish and still the larger gull menaced it 
from above. At last the jaeger’s patience was 
exhausted, and with a swift flirt of its wings, 
it made a jab for the kittiwake’s head with its 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


97 


sharp, hooked beak. The smaller gull man- 
aged to dodge the thrust, and then, feeling that 
there was no use in fighting further against 
fate, opened its beak and allowed the silvery 
fish to drop toward the water. There was a 
flash of brown wings above it, and down 
through the air whirled the robber-bird and 
seized the fish in mid-air as neatly as a good 
fielder scoops in a high fly. The kittiwake, 
with a mournful squeal, started back to the 
sea for a fresh supply. 

“Some system that,” remarked Jud, admir- 
ingly. “Old Mr. Jiddy’s fishin’ fleet does the 
workin’ an’ he does the eatin’.” 

Just then Will caught sight of a flock of 
great snowy birds larger than geese, with black 
wing-tips, which came circling over the cliff a 
hundred feet above the water. 

“Here come the real fishing fleet!” he ex- 
claimed. “These gulls are dubs compared 
with them. Just watch that flock of gannets 
a minute, and you ’ll see something pretty.” 

He had hardly spoken when two of the 
snowy birds, all luminous in the bright sun- 
light, suddenly dived from the flock straight 


THE BLUE PEARL 


98 

down through a hundred feet of space. Their 
telescopic eyes had seen fish within striking 
distance in the water below. With long head 
and neck stretched straight out in front, they 
balanced themselves with their tails as they 
went down, whizzing through the air exactly 
as a human diver would do, and together 
struck the water with a tremendous splash. 
Far below the surface they sank, only to come 
up again, each with a large fish in its sharp 
beak. 

It was Joe, however, who made the most 
practical addition to the ornithological dis- 
coveries of the day. A flock of small, plump, 
chubby birds suddenly appeared from no- 
where and drifted around the Argonauts like 
a cloud of whirling leaves. Springing to his 
feet, Joe seized a long stick in one hand and 
began to wave with the other, a long bandana, 
which, with a quick motion, he unwrapped 
from his neck. As the gay-colored bit of cloth 
fluttered in the air, the silly, slow-flying birds 
came close and closer until they were whirling 
around Joe’s head like a swarm of bees. 
Suddenly dropping the handkerchief, the In- 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


99 

dian grasped the stick with both hands and 
swung it back and forth through the flock with 
all his might. Before the swarm had time to 
untangle and fly away, he had laid out flop- 
ping on the beach an even dozen of the plump- 
est, fattest, roundest birds the boys had ever 
seen. “Cheekies” Joe called them, but Will 
recognized them as little auks. 

“They best bird to eat in this country,” ex- 
plained Joe, as he hurried over to help the 
boys secure them. “Indian boys catch them 
in spring out of air with big nets.” 

A few moments later, as each of the party 
wolfed down a fresh-broiled auk, they fully 
agreed with Joe. Not even the flesh of the 
ruffed grouse or the breast of a wild-celery-fed 
canvasback duck can compare with the plump, 
succulent, dark meat of that little auk which 
so few white men have ever tasted. 

Will and Fred would have liked to stay and 
explore every nook and cranny of Half-Way 
Island, but dinner was hardly over before Joe 
was urging them on. 

“Long way to go yet,” he said. “Wind may 
come up. Let ’s go while goin’ ’s good.” 


IOO 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Quite right, quite right!” agreed old Jud. 
“The trouble with you kids is that you always 
want to be eatin’ or loafin’. It ’s mighty lucky 
that you got a hustler along like me,” and the 
old man lay back and smoked his pipe until the 
canoes were packed and launched. 

All that afternoon they paddled on through 
a tangle of islands until at last they came to a 
long stretch of open sea, beyond which loomed 
the black bulk of snow-shrouded Akotan, the 
Island of the Free People. Straight ahead of 
them the sinking sun made a long golden path- 
way, and they followed its gleam with hearts 
as high as those heroes of old, who, with Jason 
at the helm and Orpheus at the bow, harping 
them on, smote the wine-colored sea with their 
oars and drove straight toward the glitter of 
the Golden Fleece and the beauties and the 
enchantments and the dangers of that ancient 
island. In the dimming light, the black out- 
lines of Akotan seemed to show grim and 
sinister, and a silence fell upon the little party 
as they neared the end of their long journey. 
Had Joe’s uncle the Shuman come back into 
power, and, if not, would white men be per- 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


IOI 


mitted to land, or, if once ashore, ever to leave 
the island? Thoughts like these must have 
been passing through Joe’s mind, but nothing 
of doubt or of anxiety showed in his calm face. 
As Will watched him, he admired, as he had 
so often done before, his composure and con- 
trol. He had the power, which so many 
white men lack, of slipping on indifference 
like a mask when vital things were at stake. 

As the coast of the island opened up, the 
boys could see that the foreshore stretched out 
toward them in a long promontory. On one 
side of this appeared a narrow opening be- 
tween towering cliffs, leading into a vast land- 
locked bay which stretched far into the in- 
terior. Lofty peaks, some snow-crowned and 
calm, others shrouded in smoke and blackened 
and barren from hidden fires, guarded the 
shores of this bay. On the other side of the 
promontory stretched a belt of small, rocky 
islands, among which, even on this calm day, 
the rising tide swelled and roared like a mill- 
race. 

As they neared the shore, Fred had the 
shock of his life. The silence and the uncer- 


102 


THE BLUE PEARL 


tainty and the waiting had been a strain on his 
nerves, which were not as well attuned to dan- 
ger as were those of the other three. As he 
looked anxiously toward the forbidding shores, 
there sounded a little splash in the water close 
to the side of the canoe where he was paddling 
bow. As he turned to look, a round, sleek, 
dark-brown head shot out of the water not 
three feet from him and a pair of lustrous 
brown eyes looked directly into his. To his 
horrified gaze, it was the head of a man. The 
hair was sleek and parted by the water, a long 
moustache drooped over white teeth, and be- 
low the brilliant human eyes showed a short, 
snub nose. In spite of himself, Fred gave a 
yell and nearly went over into the water. 

“Hey! What’s the matter with you?” 
squawked Jud, from the stern, righting the 
canoe with difficulty. 

“A merman!” gasped Fred, pointing with 
his paddle at the bobbing head. Even as he 
moved, it sank out of sight with a plop and 
there was nothing to be seen but the still green 
water. 

“Merman nothin’!” shouted Jud, who had 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


103 


caught a glimpse of the apparition. “It ’s 
only an old hair-seal. They ’ll often come up 
around a boat near shore in this latitude. Say, 
son,” he went on, looking critically at Fred 
who was shaking all over, “you want to buck 
up and not have these nervous spells. A hair- 
seal is about as dangerous as a hair-sofa. If 
that scares you, what ’ll you do on shore among 
all the ragin’, howlin’, slaughterin’ Indians 
that we ’re goin’ to meet?” 

“Well, if it was only a seal, why did it wink 
at me as it went down?” gasped poor Fred. 

Before Jud could answer, Joe from the lead- 
ing canoe held up his hand for silence. They 
were nearing a cleft in the rock which led to 
the inner bay and which was the only entrance 
to the island. Beyond the point where the 
tide-rips lashed the rocky islets, the shores of 
the island came down in lofty cliffs of dark 
granite, against which the surf boomed and 
dashed, leaving no landing even for a small 
boat. These sentinel cliffs, with the raging 
packs of breakers at their feet, extended all the 
way around Akotan. The only entrance to 
the island by winter or summer was through 


io 4 THE BLUE PEARL 

the narrow crooked pass into the landlocked 
bay. 

As they approached nearer and nearer to 
this gateway, Joe, who was leading, paddled 
slower and slower, and at last, when they were 
close to the rift in the rocks, stopped alto- 
gether. As the canoes drifted on the water, 
he raised his paddle high in the air and gave 
a strange, wailing call which echoed back and 
forth among the rocks. Hardly had the 
sound died away, when a group of men on 
either side of the little strait stepped out into 
sight. Some were armed with rifles of the 
most modern make, others carried short, heavy 
bows made of whale-bone and wrapped with 
sinew. As the boys were to learn afterward, 
this gate was guarded by day and night, nor 
could any one safely enter without signaling 
their approach. 

For long Joe talked with the leader of the 
nearest group, a spare, dark, wiry man, with 
Japanese features, who finally dismissed his 
attendants and beckoned the canoes to follow 
him as he walked along the ledges that over- 
hung the narrow channel. 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


105 

“It all right,” said Joe, as the canoes came 
abreast. “That Haidahn. He old friend of 
my father and now one of chiefs. He say that 
Great Chief has come back. He send him 
word, and we stay in guest-lodge until he see 
us.” 

In through the narrow, crooked pass, which 
one man could hold unseen against a regiment, 
they went. Finally, both canoes grounded on 
a little beach where Haidahn was waiting for 
them with several attendants. As Joe pre- 
sented the whole party, the chief received them 
with the dignity and reserve of a prince. To 
their surprise, Haidahn spoke excellent, al- 
though rather old-fashioned, English, which 
Joe told them he had learned when traveling 
with some of the arctic explorers in his youth. 

The canoes and outfit were left to the at- 
tendants, and Haidahn led the way through a 
little Indian village to the guest-lodge, a large 
tepee with a totem-pole in front of it. In- 
side blazed a fire whose smoke escaped through 
a hole in the roof, while all around were clean, 
comfortable couches of various furs and skins. 
There the party rested while Joe explained 


10 6 THE BLUE PEARL 

to them that they would not have the freedom 
of the village until they had seen the Great 
Chief and received permission from his own 
lips to remain. 

“When will that be?” inquired Will. 

“Probably right away,” said Joe. 

Sure enough, after a substantial meal which 
the chief’s attendants brought them, Haidahn 
himself came to them in the long twilight 
which faded and dimmed, but never seemed to 
deepen entirely into dark. A half-moon 
showed pale against the deep, pulsing, black- 
violet of the sky as they followed a little wind- 
ing path which twisted like a snake in and out 
among knolls and sand-dunes, but always led 
away from the village, until the barking of the 
dogs and the shrill tones of the tribe had died 
away into silence. Suddenly, around a bend, 
the whole party stood facing the land-locked 
bay into which they had come a few hours be- 
fore. In front of them towered a vast peak. 
Its flanks were black with the iron blackness of 
naked rock, and its sudden stern girth seemed 
grim and menacing. Its head was hidden in 
a cloud of black smoke, shot now and then 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


107 

with the lurid gleam of hidden fires. Even as 
they looked, the mountain muttered with a 
deep, harsh, bellowing note that echoed ter- 
ribly across the deserted bay. At the sound, 
Will thought of that other mountain which 
could not be touched, of the Pillar of Cloud 
and of Fire and of that Voice so dreadful 
that those who heard it fell upon their faces 
and besought that it should speak no more. 
To-night there came to all of them the thrill 
of an unearthly horror, as the deep mutter of 
the sleeping volcano sounded down from the 
lowering sky. In silence they stole along the 
edge of the bay, and once again that fearful 
voice spoke from the clouds and the vast peak 
seemed to shake and tremble. 

“Shishaldin speaks to-night,” whispered the 
chief, stretching a trembling hand toward the 
mountain. “This has not happened in my 
time. It means there be great things afoot.” 

In the half-light they could see ahead of 
them a low building set against the side of a 
sand-dune and facing the bay and the dreadful 
head of Shishaldin. A thin column of smoke 
trickled out of the hollow mountain. 


108 THE BLUE PEARL 

“The lodge of the Great Chief,” whispered 
Joe. 

It was built of flat slabs of cedar, with a 
ridge-pole and two slanting cross-beams at 
either end and without nail or peg, all the 
beams being cunningly spliced together with 
strips of hide and roping of cedar-bark. In 
front of the peak of the roof towered a mighty 
totem-pole fifty feet high. Its back fitted 
into the front of the lodge, and it was formed 
of two enormous serpents, facing in opposite 
directions and carved out of the solid wood. 
The open jaws of the lower one, some six feet 
from the ground, gaped horribly, with blood- 
red fangs, and was the only entrance to the 
lodge. Haidahn led the way to where a 
notched log led up to the ghastly opening. At 
the foot of this rude ladder old Jud paused. 

“I ain’t so fond of snakes,” he remonstrated, 
“that I want to crawl into one’s mouth.” 

The chief was much incensed. 

“Come or go!” he hissed from the top of the 
ladder, motioning to the open jaws and then 
pointing to the back track. Jud was no 
quitter. 


THE FREE PEOPLE 


109 


“I ’ll come all right,” he returned, picking 
his way carefully up the notched log, “but I 
want to say, Mr. High Darn, that I don’t 
think much of your taste in doorways.” 

Inside was a long room floored with flat 
cedar slabs and covered with skins. In front 
of a smouldering fire, on a raised couch cov- 
ered with heavy furs, sat cross-legged and mo- 
tionless as a carven image the imposing figure 
of an old man. He had a huge, massive head, 
while his face made the boys think of the pic- 
tures of Julius Caesar in their histories. 
There was the same aquiline nose, tight, thin 
lips, and air of haughty calm which showed 
in the face of that other great chief. For 
some time the little party stood in front of the 
old man in silence. His hair was white as 
snow and he sat with shut eyes, so that the 
boys thought him either blind or asleep. At 
last, in a voice of amazing depth and reso- 
nance, he spoke in English. 

“Whence come you and why?” he ques- 
tioned. 

There was a pause. Then Joe stepped for- 
ward. 


no 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“I brought them, O Great Chief,” he said. 
At the first sound of his voice the old man 
stirred slightly and his eyes flashed open, 
bright and of a lustrous black which con- 
trasted vividly with the whiteness of his hair. 

“By what right?” boomed the voice again, 
while outside the muttering note of dread 
Shishaldin sounded once more. 

“By the right of my blood,” returned Joe, 
proudly. 

“Show me the sign,” commanded the old 
chief. 


CHAPTER V 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 

I N the half-light, with a quick motion the 
Indian boy pulled open his flannel shirt, 
exposing his bare breast. Just over the 
heart a curling, twisted, red mark showed. 
Will remembered that he had seen it often 
while scouting with Joe in the days when, 
stripped to the skin, they had started out to 
win the cabin for the Troop. He had always 
supposed it to be some kind of a birth-mark, 
and, knowing an Indian’s sensitiveness in re- 
gard to such matters, had never even spoken 
of it to his companion. To-night, as Joe 
leaned forward so that the flickering firelight 
shone full upon him, the tattooed totem of the 
intertwined serpents stood out in bold relief 
against his brown skin. The Great Chief 
looked at it with eyes that seemed to gleam 
and glow like the flames that leaped up in the 
dark. Suddenly rising to his feet with a 
hi 


I 12 


THE BLUE PEARL 


quick, lithe motion, he towered over the boy 
for a moment and, resting his hands on both 
of the lad’s shoulders, looked long and deep 
into his eyes and spoke to him in the sonorous 
Chippewa tongue, which only Jud and Joe 
understood. 

“Ilyamna!” he said at last, while a note of 
tenderness trembled through his deep voice. 
“They told me that thou hadst come back, but 
I would not believe it until I had seen thee 
and the sign with my own eyes. Be thou wel- 
come, and thy friends, to thy home and thy 
tribe.” 

“It is indeed my tribe, O my father,” re- 
turned the boy, in the same language; “but my 
home is now near the rising sun. I have 
journeyed from there with these my friends to 
be glad that thou art still living and to ask 
thy help to find what thou and I once did 
seek.” And the boy’s voice lowered until the 
last words were almost in a whisper. 

There was a long silence. 

“What thou askest is now not mine to give,” 
finally returned the chief. “To-day only 
those may go to Goreloi, the Island of the 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 113 

Bear, who prove themselves worthy. Once 
there, he who will may seek. Whether he 
find or not is for the gods to say. I know,” he 
went on, laying a great arm, knotted and 
gnarled like the trunk of some old tree, caress- 
ingly across the boy’s shoulders, “that thou 
wilt prove thyself worthy, and I hope that 
thy friends journey with thee. One moon 
from now, those who be chosen will go. 
Until then, thou and thine shall dwell in the 
guest-lodge and Haidahn and Negouac shall 
teach and test thee and them.” Sinking down 
on his couch again in front of the fire, the old 
chief closed his eyes wearily in token that the 
audience was over. 

The five walked in silence for some time 
after they had left the lodge of the Shuman. 
Something of the mystery and the gloom and 
the power of the Great Chief still remained 
with them. Furthermore the rest of the 
Argonauts found themselves regarding Joe 
with an entirely different feeling from what 
they had ever had before. It was disconcert- 
ing to find suddenly that the boy with whom 
they had played and joked at home was there a 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Li 4 

prince of the blood royal. Even Will, who 
knew Joe better than any of the others, and 
Jud, who had the profoundest disrespect for 
any and all Indians, found themselves uncon- 
sciously treating him with a certain amount of 
deference, while Haidahn, proud chief as he 
was, ever since the Shuman had publicly 
recognized the boy Ilyamna as of his blood, 
was almost humble when he spoke to him. 

Although it was only an hour or so after 
midnight, yet in those high latitudes the sky 
was already light. Far away, near the en- 
trance to Oonimak Pass, through which they 
had come, they could see the snow-covered 
head of Mount Lituya towering dead and 
dumb, while just across the bay, all black and 
blood, the vast volcano of Shishaldin mut- 
tered to itself. At the great flat rock, which 
faced the bay at a long distance from the Great 
Chief’s dwelling, they stopped and sat down, 
while Joe told them what he had said. 

“It means,” said Will, at last, in a low voice, 
“that no one goes to the island who has n’t 
proved his courage.” 

Joe nodded silently. 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 115 

It was Fred who relieved the situation. 

“That let ’s me out,” he said disconsolately. 
“I ’m one of the best cowards in the world. 
Anyway, you took me along on account of my 
running.” 

From that night they lived in the guest- 
lodge. Every day Haidahn called soon after 
the morning meal and guided them on hunting 
trips farther and farther into the wild interior 
of the island or on fishing voyages through 
the troubled seas that beat against the rocky 
shores of Akotan. At first they would come 
back every night and have supper in the lodge 
and spend long happy evenings together talk- 
ing and telling stories around the fire. Hai- 
dahn was friendly, but, except with Joe, there 
was always about him an air of reserve and 
dignity. By degrees, Jud and the boys became 
acquainted with many of the more prominent 
warriors and chiefs of the tribe. They all 
differed from each other, not only in appear- 
ance and disposition, but in some cases even 
in race. A century before, this Athabascan 
tribe had taken refuge on the island from the 
Russian freebooters and fur-collectors who 


THE BLUE PEARL 


xi 6 

had oppressed them. After they had won for 
themselves the title of the Free People, many 
adventurous spirits flocked to them from dif- 
ferent tribes. Those who showed themselves 
worthy were taken into the tribe, and many of 
them became chiefs and rose to high rank in 
the council of the Free People. Among them 
was Negouac, with whom the boys became 
much more intimate than they ever did with 
Haidahn. He was short and swarthy, with a 
wide, smiling face, and was nearly as broad as 
he was high. He called himself an Innuit, 
which Jud explained was the same as an 
Eskimo. In spite of his short, round appear- 
ance, the boys found Negouac to be a man of 
enormous strength and of a wandering, ad- 
venturous disposition. As Haidahn’s time 
was more taken up with the affairs of the tribe, 
it was Negouac who at last accompanied them 
on all of their trips. Unknown to themselves, 
the Argonauts were being tried and trained 
for the tests which later would decide whether 
any or all of them would go to Goreloi. 

The first of the every-day adventures of the 
Argonauts came one stormy morning. All 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 117 

night long a gale had howled in from the 
southeast and the surf boomed and bellowed 
against the cliffs. As the boys sat down to 
breakfast, a new sound came from the sea, 
which drowned even the boom of the surf. It 
was a deep bass roar, with that curious sub- 
terranean quality which can be heard in the 
roar of a full-grown lion. First one, and then 
another, and then a whole chorus of these roars 
would sound from the sea. Each one started 
as a muttering note, lower and deeper than 
was ever sounded on any organ made by man. 
Gradually it seemed to come up to the surface 
and swell in volume until it ended in a full- 
throated roar like the blast of some great 
bass steam-whistle. When the full chorus was 
in cry the air fairly vibrated with the tre- 
mendous notes. Just then Negouac came 
panting and running up to the lodge. 

“Hurry,” he said, “eat up breakfast. Sea- 
lions have come.” 

Ten minutes later the Argonauts had joined 
the hunters of the tribe. To the Free People, 
the arrival of the sea-lion was an important 
event. Largest of all the seals except the sea- 


1 1 8 


THE BLUE PEARL 


elephant, which is found only in antarctic 
waters, the sea-lion furnished the tribe with 
material for their boats, their tents, and their 
clothes, as well .as large stores of meat and 
oil. As the party reached the shores of one of 
the numerous interior bays, they saw a great 
sight. Beyond the rocks, such a surf boomed 
and dashed against a long sloping beach as 
the boys had never seen before. Tremendous 
breakers ten feet high would come roaring up, 
to break on the rocks and sand with a crash. 
It would seem as if nothing living would dare 
to venture among their mighty, tossing heads. 
Yet there, swimming, playing, bobbing, en- 
joying the danger, and roaring down even the 
crash of the falling waters, was a great herd of 
sea-lion. The enormous males, ten and eleven 
feet long, would thrust their tawny chests and 
short, grizzled manes far out of the water and 
roar, while around them sported the females, 
about half their size. As the hunters watched 
them, concealed behind the rocks, the herd 
came closer and closer to shore. Suddenly 
the whole herd seemed to come dashing 
toward them through mid-air as they rode 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 119 

the crests of the mighty breakers. At times 
they would disappear like ghosts, only to re- 
appear again on the tiptop of the surging bil- 
lows. Riding the surf with marvelous bal- 
ance and speed, just as it seemed to the watch- 
ers on the shore as if every one of them must 
be crushed on the rocks and ground to pieces 
under the weight and smash of the falling 
waters, each lion shot out of the smother of 
foam and landed far up the beach, as lightly 
and buoyantly as if they had been made of 
cork. Hauling themselves up beyond the 
reach of the waters, one by one the herd took 
their places, until half a hundred or so were 
scattered here and there far along the beach. 
The old males, especially, were most imposing 
animals. As they reared up their heads, 
necks, and mighty chests, they towered fully 
six feet in height. From in front each sea-lion 
seemed a beast of tremendous size, strength, 
and girth, measuring perhaps nine feet around 
the chest. The hind quarter was a small, nar- 
row trunk, tapering off into puny, feeble, hind 
flippers. As they first came out of the surf the 
sea-lions were of a dark chocolate-brown and 


120 


THE BLUE PEARL 


black color and their skins, covered with short 
hair, glistened as if they had been oiled. Af- 
ter the herd had found their places, the 
younger ones frolicked and played in and out 
of the water and through the surf like puppies. 
Their supple spines, with ball-and-socket joint 
attachments, allowed them to bend and curve 
as if they had been made of India rubber. 
Well beyond the wash of the waves, the bat- 
tered, scarred old males lay by themselves. 
With their long heavy necks, their sinister 
muzzles, their lips snarling back over fierce, 
glittering teeth and red-and-white bull-dog 
eyes, they looked like sullen, savage, dangerous 
beasts. 

Yet old Negouac told the boys that the 
creatures were dangerous only to each other 
and would always flee from man. When at 
last the herd was fairly set, the hunters stole 
down from behind the rocks and, crouching 
in the dim light, crept on all fours across the 
surf-beaten sand, taking advantage of the 
shelter of every boulder, until they had 
formed a line between the surf and the greater 
part of the herd. Then, springing to their 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 12 1 

feet, the whole band, waving their arms over 
their heads, shouted and yelled like demons, 
rushing toward the unsuspecting herd. In a 
second, in spite of their fierce aspect, every 
sea-lion there, old and young, started off with 
a mad rush. Now a sea-lion, when startled, 
can sprint for a few yards at quite remarkable 
speed, considering that it has to depend upon 
flippers instead of paws. Moreover, it always 
moves in the direction in which it is faced. 
Those that are faced toward the surf dash 
toward the surf and nothing can stop them. 
Old Jud had no knowledge of this peculiarity, 
and as he was prancing around, shouting and 
waving his arms with the rest of the band and 
watching the herd scatter, he suddenly saw 
bearing down upon him like a battle-ship a 
huge male. Its tremendous chest and head 
towered fully six feet high, as it rushed 
down upon him, gnashing with its glitter- 
ing teeth in a most terrifying way. In spite 
of its appearance, the animal was only in- 
tent on escaping; and if Jud had stepped 
two feet to one side, he would have been per- 
fectly safe. He did step the necessary two 


122 


THE BLUE PEARL 


feet, and kept on stepping at an extraordinary 
rate of speed for one of his age. Without 
even glancing back, he sprinted down the 
beach like a race-horse, convinced that the 
towering beast was close upon his heels. Even 
the stolid hunters grinned as they watched him 
skim along the sand long after the escaping 
sea-lion had been lost to view in the surf, while 
the Argonauts doubled themselves up with 
laughter. 

“Keep it up, old man!” shouted Fred; 
“you Ve broken the fifty-yard record and I ’ll 
bet you break the hundred.” 

At the shout, Jud glanced over his shoulder, 
and, seeing that he was no longer pursued, 
slowed down and came back slowly to the 
grinning group. 

“I just stepped out of the way of that roar- 
ing, ramping old lion,” he explained. “Then 
I felt sort of cold so I thought I ’d jog up and 
down the beach to get warmed up.” 

“Some jog!” remarked Fred. 

His turn, however, came next. After the 
hunters had rounded up those of the herd 
which had not escaped into the surf, they 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 123 

started to drive them over to the killing- 
grounds just outside of the village, where they 
were slaughtered like cattle and skinned and 
dressed for the tribe’s yearly supply of leather 
and oil. In spite of their menacing appear- 
ance, the whole herd was easily driven. If 
they stopped to rest too long, they were 
prodded into motion again from behind. If 
they attempted to straggle off to one side, they 
were frightened back by hand-clapping. One 
of the hunters carried a blue-gingham um- 
brella, which must have come to the tribe from 
the trading-station on the mainland. In any 
case, where some determined animal insisted 
upon breaking out of the line, this umbrella 
was at once brought up. Suddenly opened, it 
was sufficient to frighten back even the fiercest 
of the herd. Fred, unfortunately for himself, 
made the mistake of believing that, because a 
sea-lion will not attack a man, it is incapable 
of defending itself. Accordingly, when one 
big male balked and refused to go on, Fred 
walked up close to its menacing front and 
prodded it with a stick. Just as he did so, his 
foot slipped and he fell flat on the slippery 


124 


THE BLUE PEARL 


stones right in front of the vast brute. Like 
lightning, the great head shot down and the 
fierce jaws gripped Fred’s back. He strug- 
gled to release himself in vain. A sea-lion has 
been known to crush quartz pebbles in its 
teeth as if they were brittle lumps of sugar. 
Fortunately for Fred, the grip of the teeth 
was in his clothes and not in his flesh. With 
a flirt of its mighty neck, the great lion whirled 
the boy up six feet from the ground and flipped 
him off into the air without an effort, ripping 
his coat, sweater, and shirt completely off his 
back. As he fell sprawling and kicking, 
Negouac, Joe, and Will, who were nearest, 
leaped forward and caught him in their arms 
before he struck the hard rocks. 

“Striker’s out!” bellowed Jud, like an um- 
pire. “Batter up!” 

When Fred was once more on his feet and 
looking around in a dazed way, the old man 
pulled off his coat and put it on him. 

“The next time, son,” he remarked, “in- 
stead of makin’ funny cracks at older an’ bet- 
ter men than yourself, you keep out of lions’ 
mouths.” 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 125 

After the sea-lion round-up was over, 
Negouac took them fishing. For the first 
time, Will and Fred were initiated into the 
use of bidarkas, as the natives named the little 
craft in which they were accustomed to fish 
and voyage far and fast. These arctic canoes 
were made of a light framework of cedar and 
willow withes lashed together with sinews, and 
were covered with untanned sea-lion’s skins, 
which were sewed on while they were wet and 
soft. When these skins dried out, they con- 
tracted and bound the whole frame as taut as 
the parchment of a drum. Each bidarka was 
smeared over with thick seal-oil, and was al- 
ways hauled out and dried carefully in the 
wind after being used. One of the bidarkas 
had two man-holes, while the other had three. 
Joe, who was accustomed to the balance of 
a bidarka, took charge of the smaller one with 
Will, while Negouac, Jud, and Fred were the 
crew in the three-holed vessel. Will took one 
look at the skin-covered boats and then tim- 
idly suggested to Negouac that they go out in 
their own canoes. The suggestion was re- 
pelled with scorn by the chief. 


126 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“White man’s boat only good for children,” 
he remarked. “Bidarka the boat for men.” 

“Drowned men, I should say,” remarked 
Fred, as he also looked doubtfully at the 
double-prowed, square-sterned, narrow craft 
in which they were to venture out on the icy, 
treacherous waters. Negouac only grunted. 
Each one of the crew was fitted out with a 
waterproof garment known as the kamlayka, 
a kind of sweater made of the skin of the hair- 
seal, waterproofed with sea-oil, and smelling, 
as Fred said, like a fish-market on a hot day. 
For boots, each Argonaut was furnished with 
tarbosars, long, comfortable boots made of sea- 
lion skin with the thick leather of the flippers 
for the feet. Besides all these, old Negouac 
wore a kind of outer vest made of membrane, 
lined with feathers, and ornamented with tufts 
of dyed hair and lines of goose-quill work. 
Moreover, in order to show that he was quite 
accustomed to the ways of white men, Ne- 
gouac sported a high silk hat, which some 
joker at the trading-station on the mainland 
had once sold to him. Joe warned them that a 
chief must never be laughed at, but it was all 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 127 

that the boys could do to keep their faces 
straight every time they looked at his head- 
piece. Once, indeed, he caught Fred doubled 
up behind him in noiseless convulsions. 

“What the matter with you?” he demanded 
suspiciously. 

“Something hit me on the funny-bone,” 
gasped the boy. 

“Never mind him, Chief,” broke in Jud; 
“he has these fits at times.” 

It took Will and Fred some time to learn 
to balance these curious little boats and to use 
the narrow-bladed paddles which went with 
them. Far out among the rocky islands they 
anchored with a long line made of kelp with a 
round stone for an anchor, and fished for cod 
with lines made of braided sinews fastened to 
clumsy wooden hooks. In spite of this tackle, 
they were soon hauling in great silvery cod 
and haddock and pollock. The fish bit well, 
but, like all cod, were not gamy. 

“It ’s like catching an iron safe,” objected 
Will, as he hauled up a ten-pound, unresisting 
cod. Then for a change he pulled up a sea- 
spider, a hairy, horrible crab a foot in di- 


128 


THE BLUE PEARL 


ameter, and nearly upset the bidarka in trying 
to keep out of its way as it came into the boat 
sprawling and biting and clawing. A mo- 
ment later an exquisite jelly-fish drifted past, a 
mass of translucent, opalescent pink and blue 
and gold, with streaming tendrils ten feet long. 
In spite of a warning shout from Joe, Fred 
tried to pick it up; but as he thrust his bare 
arm among the many-colored streamers, they 
stung him like a hundred nettles, until his 
flesh was covered with rows of white welts like 
enormous mosquito-bites. Jud was greatly 
amused. 

“Pickin’ jelly-fish is a good deal like pickin’ 
bumble-bees,” he observed from his boat. “It 
can be done, but it ’s apt to be a little wearin’.” 

Just then Jud had a bite, and pulled out of 
the water a curious-looking green fish, with 
protruding front teeth, green eyes, and sharp 
spines. As it came out of the water, it grunted 
violently and commenced to fill itself with air 
and swell and puff until it was as large as a 
foot-ball, and bounced on the water like one as 
Jud indignantly threw it back. 

After they got back to shore, the Argonauts 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 129 

took a little walk in the afternoon sunlight, 
while Negouac superintended the preparation 
of a wonderful fish-chowder. 

Some distance up the slope on which the 
guest-lodge stood, Fred came across a flat 
stone of such a size that only a strong man 
could lift it. Under one end, partially con- 
cealed in the grass, he noticed a cloud of able- 
bodied yellow-jackets flying in and out of a 
round hole. It did not take much knowledge 
of natural history for him to decide that their 
nest was concealed under that stone, and he 
made up his mind to get back at Jud, if pos- 
sible, for his jeers about the jellyfish. Poking 
a long stick in the hole, he quickly aroused the 
whole stinging, fighting swarm. Then, retir- 
ing to a safe distance, he waited until the 
furious little fighters had gone back into their 
nest. From experience he knew that now the 
merest touch would send them out ready to 
sting their worst. Then, the stage all set, he 
prepared to have Jud play the principal part. 

“There is n’t a man here can do it,” he de- 
claimed loudly, winking at Will and Joe as 
they came toward him. 


130 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“I ’ll bet I can,” played up Will, not know- 
ing at all what he was talking about. 

“I do anything you do,” was Joe’s contribu- 
tion. 

It was enough. 

“What’s all this talk about, anyway?” de- 
manded Jud, hurrying up. “Whatever it is, 
you can bet the old man can do it better.” 

“No, Jud,” said Fred, kindly, “this isn’t 
for you. That stone is too big for anybody 
here to lift. I ’m going down to get Negouac, 
and perhaps he and I together can turn it 
over.” 

“You fellows make me tired,” said Jud. 
“Any grown man can twitch that stone up in a 
minute.” 

“No, no, Jud,” broke in Will, who still had 
no idea what the joke was about, but saw what 
Fred wanted Jud to do. “You might have 
been able to do it once, but you ’d probably 
break a tendon now. You want to remember, 
Jud, you ’re not so young as you used to be.” 

That was the last straw. 

“I ’ll show you!” hissed Jud, and springing 
ahead of the boys, he wound his wiry, knotted 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 13 1 

hands in under the beveled edge of the rock, 
and, with a tremendous tug, pulled it up and 
tipped it over so rapidly that he fell over back- 
ward with it. As the stone turned over, there 
came into view a round gray globe about the 
size of a muskmelon built against the stone 
and fitted into a little hollow in the ground 
under it. Out from the hole at the end of this 
nest poured a perfect cloud of striped, sting- 
ing, buzzing, swarming yellow-jackets. In a 
second they swarmed over Jud, stinging early 
and often, while the rest of the Argonauts 
basely fled. Jud squealed and rolled and ran 
and rolled again, stung until even his tanned 
and toughened skin showed great welts and 
wales. 

As they sat down to the chowder that even- 
ing, Jud observed an icy silence and a dignity 
so profound that no one even dared refer to 
the incident of the afternoon. 

“Try a little more of the chowder, Jud,” 
finally ventured Fred. “They say it’s very 
soothing.” 

“Yes,” chimed in Joe. “Give Chief Jud 
some more fish. Fish don’t sting.” 


132 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Some do,” murmured Fred, looking at his 
puffed-up hand; “and if I remembered right, 
one of my friends nearly killed himself laugh- 
ing. They do say, though,” he went on, “that 
he laughs last, who laughs best.” 

Over Jud’s swollen and weather-beaten face 
a slow grin spread painfully. 

“I ’m stung all right,” he said, “an’ you ’ve 
got the last laugh — so far.” 

That night Death, the great adventurer, 
visited the Argonauts in disguise. It had been 
a long and eventful day, and the tired boys 
slept deep in the starless twilight which in 
those high latitudes takes the place of night in 
summer. The skin flap which served as a 
door to the guest-lodge had been left open for 
air, and the Argonauts slept in a half-circle 
wrapped up in soft furs. Only old Jud, al- 
though he slept, still kept the alertness which 
a long life of danger and adventure had taught 
him. It was the hour after midnight, when 
men sleep soundest, that there filtered through 
Jud’s consciousness a strange sound of crying. 
At the same instant some saving instinct 
aroused the wilderness-trained Indian, and Joe 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 133 

and Jud raised their heads almost together. 
Through the opening the pale light of the 
half-hidden sun shone dimly. At first they 
could see nothing, but around and about the 
lodge something was hurrying, making a fret- 
ting little wailing noise, like the cry of a feeble 
sick child. It was enough for both of them. 
With one movement Jud sat up in bed and 
drew from out a cunningly hidden holster, 
which night and day went under his left arm- 
pit, an automatic. Not so prepared as the old 
man, Joe fumbled vainly in the blankets for his 
own revolver, which he had left under his 
pillow and which during the night had worked 
down among the bedding. 

“Don’t move,” hissed Jud, as the Indian boy 
scrabbled among the bed-clothes, trying in 
vain to get his hand upon the missing weapon. 
“Quiet! Quiet!” he whispered ; “it ’s close to 
Will.” 

As he spoke, a black-and-white animal 
trotted with short stiff steps right along Will’s 
sleeping body. Its ground-color was black, 
and there were three long white stripes run- 
ning longitudinally from the back of his head, 


134 


THE BLUE PEARL 


with the white stripe on the pointed muzzle, 
which is the hall-mark of the skunk. 

Joe had stopped moving as the old man 
spoke, but his face was wrinkled with agon- 
ized lines as the little animal burrowed and 
sniffed its way along the sleeping body, seem- 
ingly trying to find some exposed place. As 
Will lay, it was impossible for Jud to shoot 
without certainly piercing his prone body. 
Only when the beast reached his shoulder 
would he be able to have a clear shot against 
the light of the opening. Even then, only an 
expert with a revolver would dare try it. The 
least deflection would strike the sleeping boy 
in the face or cut through his shoulder. The 
old man never moved, and only with his eyes 
did he warn Joe from stirring. As the crying, 
nuzzling animal came nearer and nearer to 
the boy’s exposed face, the muscles in Joe’s 
right hand became tenser. Finally it stood 
on the boy’s shoulder and wailed fretfully al- 
most in his ear as it stretched forth like a flash 
its long pointed muzzle, whose tiny, gleaming 
teeth were covered with a white froth. Quick 
as the thrust of the animal was, the shot from 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 135 

Jud’s automatic was quicker. Shooting from 
his hip he sent a soft-nosed bullet directly back 
of the fore shoulder of the little beast, and the 
impact whirled it through the air and dashed 
it to the ground, mangled and lifeless. Will 
had already been awakened by the sound of 
its crying, and, at the crack of the revolver, 
started up along with Fred. They saw Jud 
sitting there tense and motionless, while Joe, 
with a face of horror, was struggling out of 
his tangled bed-clothes. In the light of the 
doorway they caught a glimpse of the mangled 
black-and-white body. Joe threw himself 
upon Will with more emotion than his chum 
had ever seen him display. 

“He not bite you? No scratch, no mark?” 
he demanded, turning Will’s face toward the 
light. 

“No, why should he?” said Will. 

“Thank God for that,” spoke up Jud, for 
the first time. “I could n’t shoot before, an’ 
I was afraid that I might have been too late.” 

“What’s all this fuss about a dead skunk?” 
broke in Fred. “Are they so dangerous?” 

“Son,” said Jud, solemnly, “if you had ever 


THE BLUE PEARL 


136 

seen a man die from hydrophobia, as I have, 
you ’d say that this skunk was dangerous. 
Every once in awhile, in the Northwest, these 
skunks go mad. When they do, they ’ll bite a 
sleeping man in the face if they can. When 
that happens, the man dies. It may be in two 
weeks, or it may not be for a year, but he al- 
ways dies — horribly.” 

“How do you tell when one is mad?” broke 
in Will, beginning to realize what he had 
escaped. 

“Mad skunk,” explained Joe, “always cry 
and cry until he kill some one.” 

At this moment old Negouac, who had been 
spending the night in a neighboring lodge, 
came in, aroused by the sound of the shot. As 
he saw the mangled skunk and noticed that the 
white froth showed all around his pointed 
muzzle, his round face set in stern lines. 

“Who kill that?” he asked. 

Joe pointed to Jud. The old Indian 
stepped' up to the trapper and made the same 
sweeping gesture with his arms spread out in 
front of him that Haidahn had made when he 
approached the Shuman. 


THE LIFE ADVENTUROUS 137 

“You kill devil who come back to earth and 
take many of our tribe,” he said. “You go to 
Goreloi for that.” 

Jud laughed a little sheepishly. 

“That ’s nothin’,” he said. “I ’m glad I did 
it an’ I want to go to Goreloi, but I ’m not 
goin’ because I killed a skunk. You ’ll have 
to let me pass some better test than that.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 

T HE Argonauts were gathered together 
with Negouac in the guest-lodge a 
few nights after Will’s narrow escape 
from the mad skunk. After a long day of 
hunting there had been a wonderful dinner of 
broiled salmon and elk steaks, and now in front 
of the fire the talk had turned to the tests 
which loomed up before them all before they 
could hope to see Goreloi. Negouac had 
been telling them something of the delights of 
that enchanted island. 

“Goreloi all green, air smell sweet and 
there be flowers, big red fruit, painted birds, 
warm baths and good hunting,” he assured 
them. But when they tried to find out where 
it was and how to get there the Eskimo shut 
up like a clam. 

“Sounds like a fairy story to me,” murmured 

138 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 139 

old Jud to Will. “Painted birds and red 
apples don’t grow in this latitude.” 

“After seeing Half-Way Island and the 
chicken-soup spring,” returned Will, “I ’ll 
believe anything. What about the tests, 
Negouac,” he went on. “What does a fellow 
have to do to get there?” 

“He must be brave,” was all the chief would 
say at first. 

“That lets old man Jud out,” suggested 
Joe, who loved to tease the old trapper. “He 
run from little striped hornet and squeal like a 
girl.” 

“How do you get that way?” howled Jud, 
much incensed. “I never squealed a squeal. 
Nobody but a bonehead would stand still and 
let a lot of pison hornets sting him to death. 
Moreover who you callin’ ‘old’? You ’ll stub 
your toe one of these day if you don’t watch 
out.” 

“What do you call being brave?” persisted 
Will, turning again to Negouac. 

“Kill gray wolf with knife or white bear 
with spear,” responded the latter after a mo- 
ment’s thought, “or catch kahlan or sea-wolf.” 


140 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Will turned inquiringly to Jud. 

“Kahlan ’s sea-otter like I told you already,” 
explained the trapper, “an’ sea-wolf ’s the same 
as killer-whale.” 

“ Well,” said Will, “me for the sea-otter. 
I ’ll leave the bears and wolves and whales to 
you fellows. I guess a sea-otter is about all I 
can get away with.” 

Negouac said something to Joe in his own 
language. 

“He say,” translated Joe, “that take braver 
man to get sea-otter than bear, wolf or whale. 
Only two hunters in whole tribe dare go after 
them.” 

“Well,” said Will, “I ’ll be the third.” 

“All right,” said Negouac, who had been 
listening, “you shall have chance.” 

This chance came sooner than he expected. 
The very next day one of the great storms 
which make that coast so dreaded came howl- 
ing in from the southeast, the storm-quarter of 
that country. For two days and nights in the 
guest-lodge where Negouac had joined them 
they listened to the deafening crash of the 
wind and waves. At one point far out at sea 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 141 

a vast tide-rip formed where the gale at its 
height met the ebb-tide. Prisoned between 
tide and wind and reef the waves rose in vast 
breakers forty feet high crowned by clouds of 
spray and spume. In a dreadful dance they 
whirled around and around like vast sea- 
sprites and moved rhythmically back and forth, 
while the shout of their mighty voices could 
be heard for miles inland as they dashed into 
the narrow gut and broke against the face of 
the dark cliffs. The spray flew a hundred 
feet high over the top of the cliff and beat 
against the skin-covering of the teepee like 
driven snow. 

“The Sea Chiefs dance their death-dance 
to-night,” said Negouac, peering out through 
the slitted opening. “Sometimes,” he went 
on, turning to the boys, “great medicine-man 
go down and dance with them. My grand- 
father see one paddle out on night like this, 
jump into water, grow tall as Sea Chiefs and 
dance round and round with them all night 
long while tribe watch from top of cliffs. In 
morning when he come back no one dare speak 
to him.” 


142 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Heaven help any man or ship either that 
has to dance with them devils to-night,” said 
old Jud, peering out over the chief’s shoulder. 

“This boy he dance with them to-morrow,” 
said Negouac, putting his hand on Will’s 
shoulder. 

“What do you mean?” asked old Jud, while 
Will looked startled in spite of his best efforts 
to appear unconcerned. 

“Yes,” said the Eskimo, “to-morrow be good 
kahlan weather.” 

Then the chief went on to explain how the 
sea-otter was hunted. In the old times, he 
told them, it had been so common that not only 
chiefs but even ordinary Indians wore cloaks 
made of the lustrous, shimmering, ebony-black 
fur, the rarest and most valuable in the world. 
Then came the fatal day when that cruel 
Russian, Feodor Altasov, with a band of Cos- 
sacks and Tartars, discovered and won for the 
Russian Empire the great Kamchatkan Penin- 
sula. There they found sea-otter by the thou- 
sand. Even then their pelts brought such 
prices that in a few years the fierce fur-hunters 
had killed and driven away from the penin- 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 143 

sula nearly all of the otter-colonies. They 
stripped the living natives of every scrap of 
otter-fur and even rifled the graves of dead 
chiefs who had been buried in their fur parkas. 
Then building rude wooden boats they sailed 
across a dark and dangerous sea and dis- 
covered the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska 
Peninsula. There the fur-hunters enslaved 
the ancestors of the Free People and sent them 
out in bands to hunt the sea-otter. Up and 
down a thousand miles of rock-bound coast 
they drove them relentlessly. Night and day 
they hunted for their masters, storm-beaten, 
starving and freezing. On desolate islands 
with the thermometer below zero they would 
hunt for weeks at a time without fire, for the 
smoke of a fire drives away all otter within a 
range of four or five miles. At many points 
they were forced to fight for their lives with 
the fierce Koloshian tribes who allowed no 
strangers to hunt in their territory. Less than 
half of the Indian hunters came back alive 
from this terrible half-year hunt. Under the 
leadership of one of their chiefs the warriors 
who were left fought their way out with their 


144 


THE BLUE PEARL 


women and children and found their way to 
Akotan, where they became the Free People. 
The entrance to its single harbor was so nar- 
row and well-guarded and the mountains in 
the interior offered so many hiding places that 
the fur-traders had never been able to again 
enslave them. 

The boys never forgot Negouac’s story that 
night, of the sufferings, the flight and the vic- 
tory of the tribe punctuated by the mutter of 
the volcano and the mighty voices of the dread- 
ful breakers. 

Then he told them of the spearing surround 
which he remembered as a boy. All the 
hunters of the tribe would paddle in a long 
line, if the weather were calm, toward two 
small islands far out at sea. The grounds 
reached, they would scan every foot of the 
water ahead of them. At last some one would 
see the blunt head of a sea-otter as it rose to the 
surface. Only for a second would the shy 
animal remain up. Instantly he who had 
caught a glimpse of it would raise his paddle 
at the spot where the otter had dived, and the 
rest of the band would make a great circle 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 145 

around the place. For fifteen or twenty 
minutes they would wait until some one caught 
a glimpse of the otter coming to the surface 
again for air. Immediately with a shout they 
would drive him under again and start a new 
circle. For hours the hunt would go on with 
the otter staying under a shorter and shorter 
time after each dive. At last he would fail 
to go under at all and became the prize of him 
whose spear first pierced the long lithe body. 
If the weather were rough surf-shooting was 
the method used. Patrolling the surf just off 
the islands the successful hunters were those 
who were able to pierce with an arrow the 
bobbing head of a sea-otter in the waves fifty 
yards away. It would seem an impossible 
feat to accomplish from a plunging bidarka, 
yet a good hunter would hit that small mark 
three times out of four. Later the body of 
the otter which had been killed would be 
found rolled up by the surf on the nearby 
beach. 

As the sea-otter became shyer and fewer 
both of these methods had been given up many 
years ago. Nowadays they were only hunted 


THE BLUE PEARL 


146 

during storms. Then driven by the great 
waves the otter would take refuge in a series 
of islets and reefs just showing above the water 
where, burying their heads in sea-weed or in 
tossing beds of kelp, they would sleep out the 
storm. It was only then that a hunter, daring 
enough to risk his life in the waves, might ap- 
proach them. Even of the most noted hunters 
few of them lived to make many trips. In 
order to be successful it was necessary to reach 
the tiny outer islands at the very height of the 
storm, for as soon as the wind and the waves 
went down the otters would return to deep 
water. Even if the bidarkas were not 
swamped or wrecked on hidden reefs there 
was always the danger of missing the islands 
altogether and being carried out into the open 
sea from whence there was no returning. 

There was a long silence after the chief had 
explained simply why so few of the tribe 
qualified as otter-hunters. It was old Jud 
who spoke first. 

“Fellows,” he said, “I ’m the oldest one 
here, though not so very old at that,” and he 
looked sternly at Joe. “This otter-hunt is off. 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 147 

I ’m not goin’ back to Cornwall an’ tell Bill’s 
family that I let him go fishin’ for otters in a 
hurricane.” 

“It ’s too late,” said Will. “I can’t back 
out now. We can’t afford to fall down on the 
very first test.” 

Jud looked around the little circle but re- 
ceived no encouragement. Joe only nodded 
at Will’s last words. 

“He could n’t be a quitter,” murmured 
Fred, while Negouac’s face was as impassive 
as usual. 

“I ’m goin’ myself,” declared the old man 
finally. “I ’ve just remembered I used to be 
some otter-hunter an’ I don’t want you kids 
to have all the glory.” 

Will patted the old trapper’s back. 

“It can’t be did, Jud,” he said softly. “I 
promised to do this — and I will. You save 
yourself for killer-whales.” 

Nothing more was said, and before long 
they were all asleep. It seemed to Will only 
a few minutes later, although many hours had 
passed, when the chief woke him up. At the 
water’s edge, crouched down in the sand, with 


i 4 8 THE BLUE PEARL 

their backs to the howling gale they found the 
two hunters, Alunak and Alnitam. Both 
were wiry, dark and small and neither of them 
spoke much English. Alunak was the older 
of the two and knew the channels, currents, 
reefs and bars of the great bay better than any 
man in the tribe, while Alnitam who was to 
paddle bow could recognize the black bobbing 
head of an otter a thousand feet away. 
Hauled well up on the sand beyond the reach 
of the waves was the bidarka in which they 
were to make the voyage, made of untanned 
sea-lion’s skins, stretched and sewed over a 
light strong frame-work of cedar and whale- 
bone. The little boat was decked over with 
skins as taut as the parchment of a well-strung 
bass drum and smeared all over with thick 
sea-oil so that it was really made up of four 
air-chambers separated by the three cockpits 
in which the paddlers sat and was as unsink- 
able as any craft could be. Launching the 
bidarka in a bit of comparatively smooth 
water it was held until the paddlers had taken 
their places and were laced in. Each of them 
was equipped with a short heavy club and a 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 149 

long double-bladed paddle. For a second 
Negouac held the boat in balance. Then as 
Will waved a good-bye it shot out into the rush 
and foam and smother of the storm. The in- 
ner reefs were roaring like a battle and the 
great and fearful voices of the Sea Chiefs 
sounded through the mists. Favored by wind 
and tide the little cockle-shell of a boat leaped 
through the blowing vapors like a flying-fish. 
Will had never imagined anything like the 
absolute skill and balance of his companions. 
For a while he could see nothing but a whirl- 
ing white waste of waters. At times the little 
boat would be far up on the very crest of some 
mighty swell and he could see the cliffs and 
the peaks and the miles of torn water ahead. 
Then with the rush of a toboggan it would 
shoot deep down the slope into a boiling caul- 
dron of white water rimmed around with 
black-green tossing walls that threatened to 
engulf them, but marvelously never did. 
Through it all Alunak and Alnitam never 
missed a stroke. Always just at the right mo- 
ment the deft beat of their paddle would send 
the bidarka spinning out of the boiling depths 


150 


THE BLUE PEARL 


and up again to the crest of some huge roller. 
Not always did they escape untouched. 
Twice in the welter and whirl of cross-seas a 
crashing wave drove boat and crew down 
under tons of falling water. Each time the 
bidarka bobbed up like a cork although the 
last time Will was gasping hard for breath 
before he reached the surface. 

At last their course led them directly across 
one end of the line of reefs among which the 
swift and deadly breakers shouted and danced. 
For an instant Akotan, the foremost hunter, 
turned and looked searchingly at Will. Then 
down from the crest of a towering wave on a 
long hundred foot slant the little boat shot 
where the white waves towered and vanished 
like ghosts. The water in front of them, 
lashed to a foam, was snow-white. Suddenly 
from out of the mists with a roar like an earth- 
quake one of the vast breakers rushed from the 
inner dance of death to meet them. Fifty feet 
high the monster towered. It whirled and 
darted backwards and forwards as if keeping 
time to the shouting of that fatal inner circle 
of its brethren. Driven on by the roaring 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 15 1 

gale and tide it was impossible to stop the 
bidarka nor could they veer save slightly from 
their course and strike the narrow channel 
ahead which was the only safe passage to the 
outer waters. As the great sea chief ap- 
proached them in a whirling circle the two 
Indians did a curious thing. From out of the 
weltering waters they raised their paddles 
aloft for an instant in salute. Then with a 
quick movement Akotan produced from the 
folds of his parka a little skin bag of the thick 
seal-oil and swiftly poured it into the troubled 
water just beyond the little craft. Like magic 
the tossing, foaming water ahead smoothed 
and a shining slick of oil spread toward the 
advancing breaker. Under its film the water 
remained unbroken. When at last its edge 
touched the flank of the giant breaker, the 
chief of the sea moved backwards as if accept- 
ing and honoring an offerings. Although 
Will knew that the oil had only for a moment 
turned aside the twist of the current in another 
direction, yet it looked uncannily like magic. 
Out across the slick into the raging waters 
beyond they all paddled desperately. As they 


THE BLUE PEARL 


1 5 2 

safely reached the little passage which led out 
into the open bay Will glanced back for an in- 
stant. Just where they had been no less than 
three of the monstrous breakers were now 
whirling and shouting with dreadful glee. 

They had safely passed the first and worst 
stretch of their twenty-mile voyage. The 
risk now was that the steersman might miss 
his course. A few feet one way or the other 
might either wreck them on a fatal reef or 
send them driving hopelessly into the open sea 
beyond. To Will bruised, drenched, beaten 
and breathless by the raging waters through 
which they had passed, it seemed incredible 
that any one could see any marks or ranges 
whatever by which to steer. Old Alunak, 
however, held his course unfalteringly. 
Somewhere amid the waste of waters tiny 
points of rock showed or there were glimpses 
of dim islands from which he took his bear- 
ings. Under the flashing paddle-strokes the 
little bidarka fairly leaped across the water. 
As they dashed through the heart of the storm 
there was a thrill in Will’s blood which he had 
never known before. So must the Vikings of 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 153 

long ago have felt when they won their way 
through unknown waters and made storm and 
sea yield to their will. 

Ahead of them miles of dark sea showed 
through the thinning mists and it seemed as if 
the dangers of the voyage were passed. Sud- 
denly little Akotan at the bow gave a strangled 
shout and tried with all his might to hold back 
the speeding bidarka. Down from the black 
overcast sky directly ahead of them stretched 
a vast dark tentacle. At first it looked like 
some great cloud-wreath. Then it lengthened 
and lengthened into a column of black whirl- 
ing water that wavered from out of the depths 
of the sky as if searching for something. Sud- 
denly with a sucking, thudding watery roar 
up from the sea itself there rose a column to 
meet it. Around and around it whirled and 
roared, stretching higher and higher until it 
towered up a hundred feet with a bellow that 
could be heard even above the tumult of the 
storm. Up and up it rose waving dreadfully 
in the wind but driven ever skyward by some 
invisible power. In an instant the searching, 
groping figure from the sky stretched down to 


THE BLUE PEARL 


i54 

meet it and with a crash the two vast fountains 
joined together and Will watched the dreadful 
march of a waterspout across the sea. There 
was an unearthly horror about it such as ac- 
companies an earthquake or the eruption of a 
volcano. To the Indians it was the visible 
Spirit of the Sea itself moving down to 
meet them. They bowed their heads and be- 
gan a fear-broken chant. As the dreadful 
roar of the approaching column sounded 
nearer and nearer the Indians bent forward 
with arms outstretched babbling in mortal ter- 
ror. As it came close the lower column of 
water showed a dark, tawny, muddy hue. 
The tremendous force of the waterspout had 
siphoned up the water from the lowest depths 
and was whirling up the mud from the sea- 
bottom a thousand feet below. Will paddled 
desperately alone to cross its path before the 
monster reached them. 

“Paddle! Paddle!” he shouted to the 
hunters who still were stretched forward with 
closed eyes invoking the mercy of the fierce 
elemental which had come upon them. 
Swinging his paddle forward he poked Alni- 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 155 

tam vigorously in the back and with a reversed 
swing rapped old Alunak on the top of his 
head. 

“Paddle for your lives!” he shouted again. 
The shouts and the pokes seemed to rouse the 
Indians and with eyes closed that they might 
not look upon the Spirit of the Deep, they 
paddled with all their might. Once again the 
little bidarka fled on its way. As the towering 
column neared them the gale died down as if 
yielding to a power greater than its own might. 
With quick, flashing strokes the three paddled 
as they had never paddled before. For a 
minute it seemed as if the roaring spout would 
engulf them before they could cross the line 
along which it was traveling with tremendous 
speed. Just, however, as it seemed as though 
they must be caught and whirled to a strange 
death in the sky, they passed beyond the 
outer fringe of the roaring waters. So close, 
however, had been their escape that one of the 
slender shafts of water which rose from the 
sea beyond the main column, struck against 
them and only the skill and strength of the 
Indians kept them still above water. 


THE BLUE PEARL 


156 

Roaring dreadfully the waterspout passed 
on and before long was lost in the mists that 
hung deep around the shores from which they 
had come. 

“Great Chief of the Ocean go to dance with 
Sea Chiefs,” old Alunak muttered a moment 
later. 

Without further adventure they reached 
the tiny distant outlying islands, the last known 
haunt of the sea-otter. Passing to the leeward 
of these they found themselves for the first 
time that day in comparatively calm water. 
Directly ahead of them was a great bed of 
kelp. The snaky, golden-brown tendrils and 
hollow stems matted together made a tossing 
carpet that covered the sea for thousands of 
square feet. The air was full of the roar of 
the tempest and vibrated with the booming of 
the waves against the granite cliffs. All at 
once with a sweep of his paddle which bent 
his lithe muscular body almost double, Alnitam 
in the bow brought the bidarka up standing 
and pointed to a place in the waving kelp 
nearest to where Will was sitting. There not 
two yards away on the tossing sea-wrack was 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 157 

the most beautiful animal that the boy had 
ever seen. As it lay stretched out on its back 
at full length it was nearly five feet long. 
Every line of its long slim body was lithe and 
graceful as it swung back and forth with the 
pitch and swell of the water. Clasped tight 
to her breast was the single cub which a 
mother sea-otter bears. It was only about a 
foot in length and had a coat of coarse, brown- 
ish grizzled hair while its little round head 
was brindled and its tiny nose which from 
time to time nuzzled into its mother’s warm 
breast was whitish-gray. The round head of 
the mother-otter was burrowed into the kelp 
and fearing no foe in the tempest she lay there 
with her cub, sleeping out the storm. With 
the utmost care old Alunak and Alnitam with 
every muscle tense and alert pushed the bi- 
darka up noiselessly until Will was right over 
the little sleeping family. At the first sight 
of the prize he had grasped the short heavy 
club which is the only weapon used in this kind 
of hunting. Even as he looked, however, the 
mother-otter with a little affectionate gesture 
clasped her cub tighter in her arms and 


1 58 THE BLUE PEARL 

wrapped him closer in her long silky fur. It 
was such fur as Will had never even imagined. 
Black as night, yet it had a shimmer and a rip- 
ple which passed through it like the changing 
tints in watered silk. It was a pelt with which 
a man might ransom his life or give to a king. 
Few indeed have been the living men who 
have ever even seen what one blow would 
make Will’s very own. The nearest trading 
station would pay thousands of dollars for it 
untanned and unstretched. Yet as Will 
looked down upon the sleeping mother and 
her little one it was as if the great wild Sea 
had taken him into her confidence and trusted 
to him her sleeping children. He could no 
more have killed that otter-mother sleeping 
there before him with her dear-loved cub in 
her arms than he could have struck down a 
human child entrusted to his care. The In- 
dians began to be impatient and seeing that 
Will hesitated old Alunak raised his paddle to 
drive his end of the bidarka near enough for 
a fatal blow. Then it was that Will gave 
up the chance for which he had traveled so 
far and endured so much. With a quick 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 159 

motion he touched the nearest hind-paw of 
the sleeping animal with the end of the club. 
It was enough. With one arrowy, lithe move- 
ment the otter curved herself under the kelp 
with her cub in her arms and was gone in a 
flash. There was a horrified gasp from both 
of the Indians as they turned fiercely upon 
Will. It was beyond all their understanding 
that the white boy should endure dangers such 
as none other in their tribe had dared and then 
forego the reward, for the hunter who brought 
back a sea-otter was always made a member 
of the Order of the Bear and privileged every 
year to go to Goreloi. Will met their fierce 
looks unflinchingly and tried to explain to 
them in sign-language that he felt that it would 
have been wrong for him to have killed the 
sleeping otter and her cub. Measuring with 
both hands in the air the little length of the 
cub he pointed to the sky and shook his head. 
At once the Indians came to the conclusion 
that to Will otter-cubs were taboo. Every 
Indian is familiar with the doctrine of the 
taboo under which he believes that the killing, 
eating, or even touching of certain articles is 


i6o THE BLUE PEARL 

forbidden and is convinced that the breaking 
of a taboo is not only wrong but is always 
attended with some great misfortune. So, 
although bitterly disappointed they went on 
with the hunt without questioning further his 
reasons for allowing the mother otter and her 
cub to escape, although if an ordinary member 
of the tribe had done this he would have been 
promptly tossed overboard. 

Here and there, back and forth through all 
the tossing, waving kelp-beds the hunters 
searched but without a sight of another of the 
otter-folk. It began to look as if all of the 
dangers of the trip had been endured for noth- 
ing and the faces of the Indians grew more 
and more somber. At last they landed upon 
one of the little islands itself. It was a mass 
of huddled rocks thickly carpeted with sea- 
weed and wet and slippery and covered with 
foam where the lashing waves during the 
height of the storm had broken over. Around 
its edge ran a tiny beach. Pulling the bidarka 
well up beyond the reach of the waves the 
hunters separated to beat across every foot 
of the islet. Up and down the slippery, weed- 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 161 


covered rocks Will searched but found noth- 
ing except a few of the enormous sluggish 
crabs as big as a wash-basin which live in those 
waters. He finally reached a spot where a 
tiny bay broke the circumference of the coast. 
All at once down the slope of a high rock 
he saw a black figure flashing toward him 
through the green weed along a narrow path 
which led from the rocks directly to the beach 
behind him and in the very middle of which 
he was standing. On either side of Will were 
heaped up slippery boulders higher than his 
head. As the animal drew nearer he saw that 
it was an enormous dog-otter hurrying down 
the rocks to take refuge in the deep water. 
Down the slope and down the path undeviat- 
ingly with pattering steps the long, black body 
writhed along on its short legs like a hunting 
snake. A sea-otter will always take to water 
by the nearest route and turns out for no one, 
large or small. This one was almost upon 
Will before he realized what it was. The 
black silky hair bristled until the body of the 
otter looked like an enormous swollen cylinder 
surmounted by a fierce, little globe-shaped 


i6i 


THE BLUE PEARL 


head. The beast bared its peculiar flat teeth 
and from the center of the perfectly round 
head a pair of black snaky eyes gleamed vin- 
dictively as with a grating snarl it sprang 
for the throat-hold, the favorite of all the 
weasel-family. Once before Will had fought 
for his life with that grim weasel of the 
North, the fatal carcajou, and was not to be 
daunted by any of the lesser members of that 
fierce family. As the otter sprang he turned 
sideways, swinging his heavy club with all his 
might. It landed directly in the center of the 
globe-shaped head. The skull shattered like 
an egg under the force of the blow, and the 
otter fell dead across Will’s feet with scarcely 
a quiver. When Will tried to lift it up by 
the nape of its neck the loose pelt stretched 
out nearly a foot from the body and it was 
not until he gripped the tiny fore-feet, so short 
that they looked as if the paws came directly 
out of the skin, that he was able to swing the 
heavy body across his shoulders. As he finally 
succeeded the heads of the two Indians ap- 
peared over the rocks above. The sight of 
Will’s prize was too much for even their 


THE QUEST OF THE OTTER 163 

stoicism. With a shout they scrambled down 
and helped him carry it to the bidarka. 
There they measured it carefully with their 
paddles on which were notched the length of 
every sea-otter secured by them on previous 
hunts. From nose to tail Will’s prize was a 
good six inches longer than any other. 

The voyage home was as safe and easy as the 
outward trip had been perilous. When at last 
the returning bidarka was sighted the whole 
tribe gathered together to await its coming, 
and when they landed on the beach willing 
hands pulled their craft far up on the sand. 
With the hunters’ help Will shouldered the 
great sea-otter, grim even in death, and fol- 
lowed by the whole tribe at a respectful dis- 
tance moved in solemn procession to the 
Shuman’s lodge. In front of them Will 
marched alone. Not even Jud and Joe were 
permitted to walk by his side. Outside of 
the lodge the tribe gathered while Will and 
the two hunters entered. In the gloom and 
the flickering fire-light Will stood once more 
before the Great Chief himself. With impas- 
sive face he listened while old Alunak, bend- 


THE BLUE PEARL 


164 

ing low before him, told the story of the quest 
and how Will had not flinched during the 
storm nor before the dreadful dance of the 
Sea Chiefs, and how he had killed single- 
handed the chief of the sea-otters. When 
Alunak had finished the old chief opened his 
eyes and looked questioningly towards 
Alnitam. 

“It is true,” said the hunter, trembling. 

For a moment the Great Chief looked 
searchingly at Will. Then standing up he 
suddenly slipped over his head a little leather 
thong to which was fastened a vast, curved, 
keen bear-claw of such a size as Will had 
never dreamed existed. Allowing for the 
curve it was a full five inches in length. As 
the Shuman passed the thong over Will’s 
bowed head he muttered first in Indian and 
then in English “Be brave! be brave! be 
brave!” 


CHAPTER VII 


THE TESTING OF JUD 

I T was the second day after the otter hunt 
and Will was still stiff and lame from his 
stormy voyage to the outer islands. Since 
he had come back with the otter and wore the 
Bear-Claw he found that the tribe treated him 
differently. The children followed him in 
the streets of the village, and braves and 
squaws alike came to the doors of their tepees 
to watch him as he went by. Even proud old 
Haidahn, who ranked next to the Shuman 
himself, showed him much respect. The 
climax came late one afternoon. As Will 
came to the tepee, Joe and Jud and Fred, 
who had been sprawling on the grass outside, 
jumped to their feet and took off their hats, 
while old Jud, bowing low, held back the skin- 
flap that served as a door. 

“What ’s the matter with you fellows, any- 
way?” shouted Will, wrathfully, as he went 
165 


1 66 


THE BLUE PEARL 


through the doorway, giving the bowing Jud a 
push that made him sit down suddenly. 

“Hero,” said Fred, as they trooped in after 
him, making a low salaam. 

“Great Chief!” exclaimed Jud, throwing 
himself flat on the ground and burying his face 
in his hands. 

“Big Shuman,” grunted Joe, standing on 
his head and kicking his legs respectfully in 
the air. 

It was too much for Will. 

“I’ll shuman you!” he yelled, grabbing 
Joe’s waving legs and landing him on Jud with 
a bump that knocked the breath out of the 
old trapper. Then he seized Fred, intending 
to rub his nose on the floor. With a quick 
tackle, the latter dived under his arms and, 
grabbing him just back of the knees, tipped 
him over on top of the other pair. Thereupon 
all three clutched Will and commenced to 
roll him over and over on the dirt floor, shout- 
ing at the top of their voices, “Hero! Chief! 
Shuman!” 

“Ouch!” shrieked Will. “Leg’go, you’re 
smotherin’ me ! Help !” 


THE TESTING OF JUD 167 

Just then the flap was pulled to one side 
and Negouac came in. Seeing his Brother- 
of-the-Bear seemingly fighting for his life, he 
seized a heavy war-club which swung from the 
lodge-pole and started to the rescue. Fortu- 
nately, as Will came to the surface on one of 
his rolls, an unoccupied eye caught sight of the 
chief and his uplifted club. 

“Hi! hold on! Don’t kill ’em, Chief,” he 
bellowed, so loudly that Negouac stopped in 
the very act of bringing his club down where 
it would do the most good. Thereupon the 
struggling heap untangled, while Jud tried to 
explain matters. 

“It’s this way, Chief,” he began; “we’re 
just common folks who have n’t killed sea- 
otters, and we were trying to show our respect 
to this great shuman.” 

Negouac looked inquiringly at Will, still 
gripping his club threateningly. 

“It ’s all right,” said the latter; “they don’t 
know any better. Nothing there but the white 
stuff you get from walrus tusks,” and he tapped 
his head and pointed sadly to the other three. 
“If they ever get rough like that again,” he 


1 68 


THE BLUE PEARL 


went on, brushing off his clothes, “you just 
bump ’em a few with that good club of yours — 
but don’t kill ’em.” 

It took some time to convince Negouac that 
this was the way white men played. 

“They feel bad,” ended Will, “because 
they ’re not brave and handsome and famous 
like you and me. They want to be Brothers- 
of-the-Bear, too.” 

“They have chance,” said Negouac, grimly. 
“To-morrow we go hunt old Three-toes. He 
man-killer bear,” he explained. “Lost two 
toes in trap many years ago. Ever since he 
kill man whenever he find him. Last year 
we lose three hunters.” 

The boys looked at each other. 

“This is your job,” said Will at last. “I ’ll 
go along and see that you work right.” 

“Yes,” grunted Jud, “a poor little sea-otter 
is about your limit!” 

The next morning on the beach in front of 
Negouac’s lodge they met the two hunters, 
Tilgalda and Saanak, who, with Negouac, 
were to go with them. Around the neck of 
each one swung the same kind of fierce, curved 


THE TESTING OF JUD 169 

claw which Will and Negouac wore and 
which the boys had seen around the necks 
of Alunak and Alnitam before they knew what 
they meant. 

Tilgalda was a forest Indian, probably a 
Cree or Chippeway. With his brother he 
had joined the Free People of the island years 
ago, coming from no one knew where. Al- 
though heavily built, he had a lithe look and 
moved like a flash. His jet-black hair was 
parted in the middle, and he had far-apart 
eyes and a broad forehead, with thin lips and 
a big jaw. His face was terribly scarred and 
his neck had been twisted so that his head 
looked uncannily over his left shoulder. 

While the two hunters were getting their 
equipment together, Negouac told the boys the 
story of Tilgalda. While hunting, a day’s 
journey back in the island, he had been at- 
tacked by a grizzly which he had fatally 
wounded. With one blow, it sent him spin- 
ning ten feet through the air and then, spring- 
ing on him, seized his head and neck in its 
great jaws and shook him as a dog would 
shake a rat. Just as its fierce teeth were about 


170 


THE BLUE PEARL 


to crush together, the bear fell over dead from 
the effects of its wounds. When Tilgalda at 
last came to, he found himself under the dead 
bear, with his scalp and throat horribly torn. 
When at last the wound healed, his neck and 
head were twisted and turned and bent for the 
rest of his life. 

He was still laid up with his wounds, when 
his brother was killed by old Three-toes, the 
man-killer, while dozing one night in front of 
his own camp-fire. 

From that day Tilgalda hunted bears and 
nothing else. Twelve grizzlies he had killed 
single-handed and let them lie as they fell, 
unskinned and untouched, in part payment for 
the death of his brother. Many, many times 
he had trailed Three-toes through the seventy- 
five square miles of territory in which the old 
murderer had lived for nearly a generation, 
but so far he had never yet been able to corner 
the fierce, wary animal, which went on taking 
his toll year after year of the lives and cattle 
of the Free People. 

Saanak, the second hunter, was different 
from any of the rest of the tribe. His face, 


THE TESTING OF JUD 17 1 

broader than his head, looked like that of an 
Eskimo; but instead of having the seal-brown 
eyes and black hair of that people, his eyes 
were blue and his hair and beard of a golden- 
red. Moreover, instead of being squat and 
short, like an Eskimo, he was so tall and well 
built that he seemed a giant among the others. 

Years later, Will found out that Saanak was 
one of the blond Eskimos from Victoria Island 
far away in the frozen North. A thousand 
years ago, Eric the Red sailed from Ice- 
land and discovered Greenland. There he 
founded a colony which flourished on the 
southwestern coast of Greenland until the 
Black Death in the fourteenth century swept 
the shipping of the world from off the seas 
and the colony was lost for a hundred years. 
When it was found again, the people had dis- 
appeared, merged in Eskimo tribes which 
wandered up until they settled on Victoria 
Island. 

Saanak had about him something of the 
strength and gloom of those Norse Vikings 
whose blood ran in his veins, and the boys 
noticed two lines of tattooing running from 


THE BLUE PEARL 


172 

the corners of his mouth to the lobes of his 
ears. These marks, Negouac told the boys, 
showed that he had killed a whale single- 
handed. Both Negouac himself and Tilgalda 
had faint tattoo marks running from nose to 
ear. He who was so marked had killed a 
hostile warrior in fair fight. So Will learned 
after much questioning of the old chief. 

“I thought there was no more fighting up 
here nowadays,” said Will. 

“The Free People must always fight,” re- 
turned Negouac. “Fight to keep free. 
Sometimes,” he went on after a pause, “we 
fight for our lives over there,” pointing to- 
ward the north and touching the Bear-Claw 
with his other hand. Nothing more would 
he say. 

Before the Indians started, they went 
through a curious ceremony which was new 
even to Joe and Jud. First they painted a 
cross of red and black on their foreheads, the 
mark of a war-party. Then Negouac brought 
from his lodge the skin of a great grizzly and 
spread it on the sand. Around this all of the 
hunters walked backward, chanting as they 


THE TESTING OF JUD 173 

went. Then each one of them in turn took 
from out of his pouch a crooked copper knife, 
tempered by an art which has been lost to the 
white race since the Stone Age. These they 
laid one after the other on the head of the skin. 
Then they circled it once more in the opposite 
direction, chanting all the while. Even Joe, 
Indian born as he was, could not explain this 
ceremony. On their way back to the lodge 
for the guns they asked Negouac what it meant. 
The old chief was amazed at their ignorance. 

“White man know nothing about hunting,” 
he said at last. “Animals stronger and wiser 
than men. Only let themselves be killed if 
man give them what they like best. Seals,” 
he went on, “live in salt water and always 
thirsty. If Indian kill seal, he pour cup of 
fresh water in seal’s mouth. Other seals hear 
about it and let Indian kill them. Old man 
bear, he very fond of crooked knives. Before 
we hunt bear we promise to hang knives 
around his skin, so we find bear easy.” 

At last the party started. Besides the four 
Indians and the four whites, there were 
two powerful, broad-chested, white-toothed 


174 


THE BLUE PEARL 


huskies, or Eskimo dogs, with slanting eyes 
who were guaranteed to fight a bear to the 
death. A couple of Indian ponies were taken 
along, too ; wiry, swift little bronchos, of which 
there were many in the tribe. One of these 
was used for a packhorse, the other was ridden 
by Jud, whose legs were not what they used to 
be. Jud and the boys wore soft deerskin shirts 
and trousers ornamented with beads and 
stained porcupine-quills, which had been pre- 
sented to them by admiring Indian friends, 
and tough, supple moccasins made of the skin 
of sea-lions’ flippers. 

It was a strange, grim country which 
stretched before them after they left the coast. 
Ledges of jagged rocks, huge boulders, dead 
tree-trunks and towering trees, deep gorges 
and crevasses, were jumbled and tumbled to- 
gether in wild confusion. Through these the 
party climbed and crawled and slid by paths 
known only to the hunters. Beyond them in 
the interior of the island towered snow-covered 
mountains to be surmounted only by first pass- 
ing over vast morasses crossed only by secret 
paths. All day they traveled fast and far, 


THE TESTING OF JUD 175 

and every hour the country grew wilder and 
more sinister. At times they would peer over 
the edges of dizzy precipices flanked by 
slopes covered with huge rocks, great pines, 
and masses of tangled thickets. Nowhere 
was there a sign of life. Yet a sense of menace 
and a whisper of death seemed to float up from 
many of the dark ravines which their path 
overhung. 

Not until the middle of the afternoon was 
any stop made for food. By this time they 
had reached a little valley set in the very heart 
of the mountains. Here Negouac proceeded 
to make a fire after the fashion of his tribe. 
Taking a fragment of iron pyrites from his 
pouch, he spread over a piece of flint a light 
covering of down. Striking this a few glanc- 
ing blows with the other stone, he made such 
a shower of sparks that the feathery tinder 
kindled instantly with a smudgy smell. With 
this he lighted the fire about as quickly as 
Will could have done with a match. 

After lunch they followed a dim trail up 
the valley. Suddenly Negouac, who was 
leading, stopped and pointed to a track in the 


THE BLUE PEARL 


176 

soft ground. It was something like the mark 
of a very broad human foot with a wrinkled 
fold of skin showing about the middle of the 
sole and a narrow, pointed heel. 

“Nannuk!” whispered the old chief and the 
Indian hunters nodded their heads. 

“That grizzly-trail,” whispered Joe. 
“Heel comes to a point, while black-bear heel 
more round and whole foot not as slender.” 

Suddenly Tilgalda, who had been looking 
beyond, pointed to a spot far up the trail. 
There in the long grass was crouched a big 
grizzly. His coat was a light brown 
sprinkled with gray, about matching in color 
an enormous ant-hill which towered up in 
front of him. Into this he would plunge first 
one paw and then the other, and, waiting until 
it was covered with ants, would pull it out and 
lick off the swarming insects with great relish. 

“Leave this chap to me,” insisted old Jud in 
a whisper. “I ’ll show you how we used to 
hunt grizzlies on horseback.” 

The Indians looked questioningly at Will, 
who, since he wore the Bear-Claw, they seemed 
to regard as the leader of his party. 


THE TESTING OF jUD 177 

“Go as far as you like,” he said to Jud. 
“We ’ll stay back and get some points from 
you.” 

The wind was blowing toward the hunters, 
and this overlord of all the animals of the 
island went on with his feeding, unconscious 
that there was anything big enough or fierce 
enough to attack him. In the late afternoon 
sunlight he seemed a slow, sluggish, shambling 
figure. Yet when he stood up and shuffled 
from side to side, there was a suggestion of 
enormous power and perfect balance in his 
movements which should have warned the old 
trapper to take no chances. Jud rode up to 
within about sixty yards of the preoccupied 
bear and then got off his horse, throwing the 
reins over the pony’s head so that they touched 
the ground. Indian ponies, like the cattle 
ponies, are trained to stand, no matter what 
happens, so long as the reins dangle over their 
heads. With the utmost caution the old man 
tiptoed about ten yards away from the horse 
toward the back of the unconscious animal. 
Taking deliberate aim, he fired, intending to 
place a soft-nosed, expanding bullet in the 


THE BLUE PEARL 


l 7 S 

very center of the bear’s spine just between his 
bulging shoulders. 

Unfortunately for him, just as he pulled the 
trigger, the bear suddenly leaned forward to 
sink his paw deeper into the ant-hill, with the 
result that the bullet cut through the loose skin 
of the back, making a searing, smarting gash 
which in nowise interfered with the monster’s 
movements. The bear was sixty yards away, 
with his back toward the man who had only 
ten yards to go to reach the safety of his pony. 
At the sting of the bullet, and almost before 
the sound of the report reached the ears of the 
hunters beyond, the great animal leaped and 
whirled in mid-air, facing the direction of the 
shot, and with a bawling roar charged down 
on Jud like an avalanche. With head thrust 
forward and flattened ears, he champed his 
teeth until the froth flew in great flakes, while 
his eyes glared furiously. 

“Hough! Hough! Hough!” he roared, 
like a lion, as he came. His gait was some- 
thing between a lope and a plunging gallop 
but carried him over the ground with the speed 
of a race-horse. 


179 


THE TESTING OF JUD 

Old Jud took one look at what was coming 
and instantly saw his mistake. If he had shot 
at the bear from a distance of a hundred or a 
hundred and fifty yards, there would have 
been time to stop his charge. Now, even if 
he were successful in landing a bullet in the 
heart or the brain of the rushing animal, yet 
the fury of his charge would enable him to 
get his vast curved claws on Jud before he 
dropped. There was but one thing to do. 
Jud did it. Dropping his rifle, he started for 
his horse like a sprinter breaking off his marks. 
If the pony had stampeded, Jud’s life would 
not have been worth a counterfeit cent. For- 
tunately for him, the sweating, trembling little 
broncho was true to his training. Not until 
the dragging reins were lifted off the ground 
would he move. Before the man, sprinting 
for his life, could reach the horse, the terrible 
rush of the charging bear had carried him so 
close that the hunters behind dared not fire. 
Jud had no time even to vault into the saddle. 
Leaving the ground with a dive he landed 
across the saddle on his stomach, clutching the 
girth with one hand and seizing the reins with 


i8o THE BLUE PEARL 

the other, while his legs waved frantically as 
he tried to balance himself. The broncho 
started with the sudden speed of his breed. 

Quick as he was, however, the shambling 
monster behind him was quicker, and in a 
second the vast shoulders and the fierce, snarl- 
ing, frothing jaws were right at the pony’s 
flank. Only the peculiar method of attack 
of a grizzly saved the lives of horse and rider. 
A charging grizzly never bites, but depends 
upon the smashing, ripping blows of its enor- 
mous forearms, which it always rears up on its 
hindquarters to deliver, using its teeth only 
when its opponent is down. True to form, the 
old bear reared upon its haunches and struck 
at the flank of the flying pony with all its 
power. The tiny tick of time which the bear 
took to rear back was all that saved the horse. 
The blow flashed past the springing hindlegs 
of the broncho by a scant inch. Once more 
the bear rushed up, and, with the same little 
pause of preparation, struck again. Once 
more the flashing legs of the pony carried him 
out of danger, this time with a wider margin 
of safety. At the third attempt the bear 


THE TESTING OF JUD 181 

missed the horse by more than a foot. By this 
time the running broncho had reached his top 
speed, which was a little faster than the bear’s 
gait. For a hundred yards farther the chase 
went on. Then the bear, seeing himself hope- 
lessly out-distanced, plunged into a thicket and 
disappeared in the direction of the nearest 
mountain. 

Throughout the whole race Jud had held on 
for dear life, keeping his place in the saddle 
by a miracle, his legs flying and flopping in 
the air at every jump of the racing horse, while 
his toes curled convulsively each time that the 
fierce head of the bear appeared under them. 
At first the boys were horrified at Jud’s dan- 
ger, but when they saw that he was safe they 
roared with delight at his acrobatic riding. 
Even the impassive Indians grinned at the 
sight of those waving legs. Seeing that the 
bear no longer followed him, Jud at last man- 
aged to climb into the saddle and, recovering 
his rifle, rode back to the party who were wait- 
ing for him. 

“That ’s the way to do it, boys,” he ex- 
plained kindly as he joined them. “Always 


I 8 2 


THE BLUE PEARL 


make a quick get-away if you find you can’t 
stop him cornin’.” 

“That sure was a quick get-away,” agreed 
Will solemnly, “but none too quick at that.” 

“What I did n’t like,” broke in Fred, “was 
his stopping to play see-saw while the bear was 
coming. That seemed kind of reckless to 
me.” 

“No,” joined in Joe, without a smile, “old 
Jud he like to ride on his stomach. He stay 
on better that way.” 

That night they pitched their camp among 
a clump of spruce trees at the bottom of a deep 
ravine. The crackling flames leaped up among 
the shifting shadows, and far away, over the 
dark peaks behind them, came a long howl 
with something of menace in its wailing notes. 
As it rose and swelled nearer and nearer, the 
picketed horses snorted uneasily and the two 
dogs, which had been lying out in the dark, 
trotted into the firelight and curled up close 
to the men. Negouac told them that it was 
the howl of a pack of hunting timber-wolves. 

“Gee!” said Fred, sinking his teeth deep 
into a strip of broiled elk-steak, which they 


THE TESTING OF JUD 183 

had brought along as part of their supplies, 
“this is the life! I’ve seen a grizzly bear 
and heard a pack of wolves and am eating a 
piece of elk. I did n’t know that there was so 
much fun left in the world. Me for camp- 
fires and hunts and adventures.” 

“That’s it, boy,” said Jud. “You once get 
a taste of wild life and you ’ll never be satisfied 
with tame life. I ’ve been a-hikin’ and 
a-huntin’ and a-wanderin’ for a good many 
years, and I like it better and better all the 
time. It beats me how folks can stay cooped 
up in cities when they might be out in the 
open.” 

The next morning they were up before 
dawn. They breakfasted on broiled, dried 
white-fish, that fish of frosted silver, the pride 
of the North. It never bites at bait, but must 
always be netted, and the Indians and the few 
white men who have tasted it agree that there 
is no fish in the world to equal it for flavor and 
nourishment. Old Negouac brewed a great 
pot of fragrant Labrador tea, that plant with 
the spicy, aromatic, leather-covered leaf which 
tastes so good when steeped. 


THE BLUE PEARL 


184 

The trail led deeper and deeper into the 
mountains, and by this time they were in the 
very center and heart of the bear country. 
Far in front of them against the sky towered a 
vast snow-covered peak which looked like a 
mountain of glass under the morning sun. 
Their trail led through wooded slopes and up 
and up and up until they reached a point 
where drifts of snow showed everywhere. All 
about them were tumbled masses of rocks and 
slides and clay-covered ridges. Suddenly 
from all around them sounded a series of shrill 
policemen’s whistles. 

“Whistlers,” explained Jud, as the boys 
looked at him inquiringly. A moment later 
they saw one perched on top of a near-by 
boulder. It was the hoary marmot, an animal 
much like the eastern woodchuck, but twice as 
large and with a silvery-gray fur. A short 
distance beyond, they came to a place where 
a grizzly had dug out a colony of marmots. 
Over two car-loads of rocks and boulders and 
stone and gravel had been piled up until the 
digging animal had made a crater some eight 
feet deep. At the bottom of this he had finally 


THE TESTING OF JUD 185 

unearthed the grass-lined cave built between 
two great flat rocks where the marmot family 
had made their home. Smears of blood and 
long claw-marks in the clay, with patches of 
gray fur here and there, showed where the 
frightened whistlers had been caught and 
killed one after the other as they tried to 
scramble up the side of the pit. Five in all 
had been killed and eaten. A mile or so be- 
yond, nearly an acre of ground was torn and 
ploughed and pitted as if prospectors had 
been mining there. The place marked where 
another grizzly had spent hours in digging up 
and eating greedily the little bulbs of the 
spring beauty, or Claytonia, which in spring 
covered the mountainside in pink-and-white 
sheets. 

Late that afternoon they camped beside a 
clattering, rushing, foaming stream which had 
its source in a glacier ten miles away. While 
the boys were getting the fire ready, Jud 
strolled away to do a bit of exploring, smoking 
his pipe and followed by the two dogs. As 
he walked and smoked, with the dogs sniffing 
at his heels, he saw in front of him what at 


1 86 


THE BLUE PEARL 


first seemed to be a thick black stump. All 
at once its top seemed to move, and to his aston- 
ishment he saw that it was another bear, grub- 
bing up roots. The dogs saw the bear as soon 
as he, and, with barks and yelps, started for it 
at full speed. Jud followed, expecting to see 
the bear take to a tree, as a black bear always 
does when closely pressed by dogs. This bear, 
however, neither fought, ran, nor climbed, but 
moved off with a shambling, effortless gait. 
Jud was armed with nothing bigger than a 
jackknife, but, snatching up a stick, rushed 
toward the bear shouting, while the dogs 
barked as they ran. Instead of taking to a 
tree, the bear suddenly turned and made a pass 
at the nearest dog, missing it by scarcely an 
inch. For the first time Jud noticed that it 
was half again as large as any black bear he 
had ever seen. 

“This climate sure must agree with bears,” 
he remarked to himself as he hurried on. 

After this warning to its pursuers, the bear 
moved steadily through the brush, with the 
yelping dogs closing in on it closer and closer. 
At last it came to where two large trees had 


THE TESTING OF JUD 187 

fallen one above the other, their crossed trunks 
making a sort of pen open only on one side. 
Into this the bear pushed his way, and, seeing 
its path blocked by the tree trunks, suddenly 
turned like a flash and rushed directly at Jud. 
As it turned and Jud caught a sight of its 
bared teeth, he realized for the first time 
what he was up against. The incisors of the 
upper jaw were nearly as long as the two 
pointed canine teeth. This double set of 
fighting teeth in the upper jaw is the sign and 
seal of the grizzly bear. If anything more 
was needed to convince Jud that this jet-black 
animal was really a grizzly, it was the sight 
of his claws. No black bear ever had sets of the 
four-inch, keen, chiseling talons which were 
so rapidly approaching the old trapper. For 
the second time that day he started to run, but 
before he had gone three steps, caught his foot 
in a concealed root and plunged headlong. 
He had just time to turn over on his back and 
draw up his feet when the bear was almost 
on him. The great beast heaved itself up to 
strike. 

At that desperate moment the two dogs lived 


1 8 8 


THE BLUE PEARL 


up to their reputation as reliable bear-dogs 
who would follow and fight until either they 
or the bear were dead. Just as Jud braced 
himself to receive what he expected would be 
his death-blow, both dogs fastened on to either 
side of the bear’s hind quarters. Their keen 
teeth pierced the tough skin and tore into the 
living flesh so excruciatingly that the bear 
turned upon them even in the very act of strik- 
ing. As it pivoted, the two dogs dodged back 
just in time to avoid the double blows which 
it struck at them with either paw. Jud took 
immediate advantage of his respite and sprang 
like an acrobat from where he lay and darted 
behind the nearest log. With a snarl, the bear 
backed into the angle and turned and faced 
the worrying dogs which followed so closely. 
In a flash the dogs ranged themselves behind 
him on either flank. As the farthest dog sunk 
his teeth again into the bear’s hind leg, the 
harassed animal turned and struck at the dog’s 
head, which showed underneath one of the 
logs inside the pen. As the bear moved, the 
dog dodged back under the shelter of a log. 
Jud’s eyes bulged out as he saw that two 



The two dogs dodged back just in time to avoid the double blows 










































































THE TESTING OF JUD 189 

of the toes of the bear’s left hind paw were 
missing. 

“Old Three-toes, the Man-Killer!” he ex- 
claimed, “and me with nothin’ but a pen- 
knife!” 

At that moment the dog nearest Jud pre- 
sented the bear with an enthusiastic bite. 
Again the bear turned, and, leaning over the 
log, struck downward so quickly that the dog 
had scarcely time to move out of range. Jud, 
farther down the log, crouched, expecting 
that the enraged animal would climb over and 
attack him again. As he waited, he managed 
to open the alleged penknife, which had a 
blade nearly five inches long. The farther 
dog then seized his opportunity and ripped 
his teeth through the bear’s exposed flank un- 
til the latter turned with a roar and started to 
scramble over the log and attack in the open. 
This was too much for Jud. It was not for 
him to allow either of those dogs, to which he 
owed his life, to be sacrificed. Resting his left 
hand on the log, he leaned forward and with 
all his might drove the knife in behind the 
bear’s left fore shoulder. The blade slipped 


190 


THE BLUE PEARL 


in clear to the handle, and, drawing it out, 
Jud leaped back. 

As he felt the stab, the bear whirled around, 
striking a blow which ripped a great mass of 
bark and decayed wood from the place on the 
log where Jud had been lying the second be- 
fore. Then for a moment bear, dogs, and man 
stopped and looked one another over in this 
three-cornered duel. As his breath came 
back, Jud shouted for help again and again, 
but no answer came. The clattering rush of 
the mountain stream near the rest of the party 
drowned all sounds farther than fifty yards 
away, nor had Jud been gone long enough to 
make them uneasy about his absence. There 
was no doubt in Jud’s mind but that he could 
escape. There was no doubt too that, if he 
went, the bear would eventually kill both of 
the dogs before he could return, for the life 
of a pack which attacks a grizzly away from 
the hunter is short indeed. 

“I just can’t do it!” said Jud, to himself. 
“Them dogs saved my life. I ’ve never quit 
a friend and I ’m not goin’ to begin now.” 

Once more Jud stabbed the bear as it started 


THE TESTING OF JUD 19 1 

over the log after the farther dog. Once more 
it whirled upon him, only to be grabbed by 
first one dog and then the other. Then began 
a grim battle. The man stopped his useless 
shouting ; the dogs yelped no more ; nor did the 
bear make another sound. It was such a fight 
as our far-away ancestors of the Stone Age 
must often have waged against the beast-folk 
in the days when the world was young. Hu- 
man strength and skill were pitted against 
brute bulk and strength. The controlled 
fierceness of the human confronted the fero- 
cious blood-lust of the beast. In dog, in bear, 
and man alike blazed a courage which noth- 
ing but death would quench. Never did 
Viking, warrior, or champion among Jud’s 
far-away forefathers for ten thousand years 
clench his teeth more grimly or grip his 
weapon more bravely for one last long fight 
than did the old man that day. Time and 
time and time again he thrust with all his 
strength. Again and again the maddened 
beast whirled and started across the log to- 
wards him, only to turn back each time to rid 
itself of the unendurable agony of the dogs’ 


192 


THE BLUE PEARL 


fanged jaws. Back and forth, around and 
around in a hurrying, gasping, panting circle 
the fight went on. 

At first the advantage was all with the bear. 
It seemed to have unlimited endurance, and 
once, as the near dog was a little slow in get- 
ting away, the very tip of the fierce claws 
caught him back of the shoulder and ripped 
long, bloody furrows from neck to tail. An 
inch nearer, and the life days of that dog 
would have been done. Streaming with blood 
and yelping with pain, yet he fought quite as 
fiercely as before. At last old Three-toes 
changed his tactics. Feinting as if to strike 
at the farther dog, he suddenly swung back as 
Jud leaned forward for his thrust and sent a 
blow whizzing at him which ripped clear 
through the flesh of his right hand, dashing the 
knife out of his grasp. Jud staggered back 
weaponless. 

Fortunately, the flying knife struck a bush 
back of him and dropped near enough to be 
easily recovered. Jud came back into the 
fight just in time to save the life of the farther 
dog. The bear was nearly over the log when, 


193 


THE TESTING OF JUD 

scrambling up, Jud sank another thrust into 
the black fur, this time with his left hand, 
with all his strength. It was enough to bring 
the bear back again into the pen, and the bat- 
tle went on, apparently a losing one for the 
man and his allies. Little by little, however, 
the bear began to show the effects of the con- 
stant attack. A full-grown grizzly can en- 
dure wounds which would disable nearly any 
other animal on this continent, but even its 
vast strength ebbs with its blood. A crimson 
froth flew from the wide open mouth, and the 
great bulk rocked, while, by degrees, the 
bear’s blows were more delayed and slower 
when they came. The change had come only 
just in time. The muscles of the dog near- 
est Jud were stiffening under his wounds. 
The old trapper himself felt a curious numb- 
ness stealing over him, and each time he drove 
his tired body to the attack with more diffi- 
culty. 

“I ’ve got just about one more punch left,” 
he muttered to himself. 

In another moment his time came. Rock- 
ing backward and forward, the bear for the 


194 


THE BLUE PEARL 


first time paid no attention to the attack of the 
farthest dog, which, alone of the four, was un- 
injured. It was not until the tearing jaws 
met in the flesh of its side that the great beast 
was roused to a last desperate effort. Whirl- 
ing back, it floundered clear over the log and, 
with its head on the other side, struck far out. 
Pulling himself stiffly up until he lay across 
his log, the old trapper leaned out. With all 
his might, he drove the knife back of the 
angle of the bear’s fore shoulder. Putting his 
crippled hand above his sound one, he forced 
the knife in with the last bit of strength he 
had left until it went out of sight — blade, han- 
dle, and all. With a last effort, he pushed 
himself back and away from the quivering 
body and dropped from very weakness down 
back of the log nearest to him. He was not 
a second too soon. As if this last terrible 
thrust had released a spring, the great beast 
sprang clear off the ground and fell across the 
log under which Jud lay, his fierce claws 
dangling not a foot above the body of the old 
man. With glazing eyes he tried to strike a 


THE TESTING OF JUD 195 

last fatal blow, but even as he raised his paw 
he fell back — dead! 

Then everything went black in front of 
Jud’s eyes. He was roused by the dogs lick- 
ing his hands. With a tremendous effort, he 
got to his feet and, followed by the dogs, 
staggered stiffly back to the camp. The boys 
were just about sitting down to a steaming 
meal when they saw the old man come totter- 
ing toward them. Grasping their rifles, the 
whole party sprang toward him. 

“What’s happened, Jud?” shouted Will. 
“Are you hurt?” 

Jud grinned weakly as he leaned back 
against their supporting arms. 

“I ’ve just been killin’ old Three-toes with 
my jack-knife,” he announced, as he sank down 
by the fire. 

“Poor chap!” said Fred; “he’s out of his 
head. Something ’s bitten him up pretty 
bad.” 

Old Negouac hurried to bandage both 
Jud’s wounds and those of the dog with hot 
water and the antiseptic sphagnum moss, after 


THE BLUE PEARL 


196 

the Indian fashion. When the boys found 
that very little of the blood with which Jud 
was covered was his own, they left him in 
Negouac’s care and, with the other Indians, 
followed the blood-stained trail along which 
he had come. There they found the terror of 
the island for a generation lying dead across 
the log. They counted seventeen knife- 
thrusts back and around the vast fore shoul- 
ders. In the bottom of the last gaping wound 
was Jud’s jack-knife. The blade had pierced 
the upper part of the bear’s heart, cutting the 
great central blood-vessels. With enormous 
effort, they dragged the immense carcass back 
to the fire. When Negouac saw the black 
body and the missing toes he said something in 
his native language to the other two. Imme- 
diately they stood up and bowed themselves 
before Jud with the same gesture which Will 
had seen Negouac use when he came before 
the great Shuman himself. Then under Ne- 
gouac’s directions the two hunters climbed a 
tall pine standing beside the stream. One by 
one they lopped the branches to the very top. 


i 9 7 


THE TESTING OF JUD 

“What in time are those fellows doing?” 
inquired Jud between bites. 

“They make you lop-stick,” returned Ne- 
gouac, respectfully. “Only great chiefs have 
lop-stick.” 

To this day beside that lonely stream towers 
the great pine with a tuft of branches at its 
top, the lop-stick of Jud Adams, the Slayer of 
old Three-toes, the Man-Killer. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 

F OR some days after Jud’s adventure the 
Argonauts lay by and rested. Even the 
iron endurance of the old trapper felt 
the effects of his fight and for three full days 
he did little but stay in the teepee and tell 
wonderful stories in English and Chippewa to 
the many who crowded around to hear the 
words of wisdom that fell from the mouth of 
the slayer of old Three-toes. Then one even- 
ing when he felt entirely himself again the Ar- 
gonauts decided to pay Haidahn a visit. As 
the long twilight deepened they all climbed up 
through a little grove on one of the slopes 
where the chief’s lodge stood somewhat apart 
from the others. The trail wound here and 
there through the underbrush and up among 
the trees. Fred had started with them but had 
gone back to the guest-lodge after a spare knife 
198 



The whale stood upright in the water 





THE LION OF THE NORTH 199 

which he had intended to give to the chief. 
As he knew the trail well the others went on 
without him. About the middle of the slope 
where the path led through thick underbrush 
there was almost utter darkness. At one place 
it made a sharp bend. When Will, who was 
leading, reached this point he suddenly gave a 
spring backwards and clutched Jud’s arm. 
Right in front of them on the ground a whole 
log seemed to be ablaze and aflame with a 
luminous, gold fire which wavered and moved 
and seemed so real that the boys almost ex- 
pected to hear the crackling of the flames. 
Yet there was no sound nor any feeling of 
heat. In a strange ghostly pallor the fire 
wavered up and down the side of the rotting 
log while the end of it was seemingly a mass 
of flaming, lambent coals. 

“Fox-fire!” cried Jud, “the best I ever see 
too!” he went on. 

At first Will could scarcely believe that the 
old man was right. He had seen patches of 
fox-fire before, that strange phosphorescence 
which sometimes shows in decayed wood, but 
never anything like this. It was like the 


200 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Burning Bush which flamed with fire but was 
not consumed. Only by an effort of his will 
could he bring himself to touch the mass of 
cold flames without snatching his fingers back 
to avoid being burned. Yet he felt only the 
cool dankness of rotting wood although every 
fibre of the log was lighted up by this strange 
ghost- fire. It was Jud who thoughtfully pre- 
pared a surprise for Fred. Swiftly knocking 
off the end of the log, which seemed a mass of 
flames, he thrust this into a crotch of a near-by 
tree so that it stood about six feet from the 
ground and directly faced the trail around the 
bend. Taking a handful of moist earth he 
made the end of the log into what looked like 
a human face. The eyes were two patches 
of the earth surrounded by flames and he made 
a black nose and a black gaping mouth filled 
with flaming teeth. When it was finished it 
looked like the face of a fiend afire with lam- 
bent flames gaping and threatening from the 
treetop all who might come that way. It 
was no more than finished when they heard 
Fred’s whistle and had just time to hide in 
the underbrush when he reached the bend. 


201 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 

As Fred hurried along the winding path he 
turned the curve and stepped out of the dark- 
ness of the thicket and almost ran his face 
into a threatening, fiery, fearful mask that 
glared down at him with dead, black eyes from 
a flaring face. The sight was too much for 
his nerves. With a yell he turned and 
sprinted back along the trail at full speed. 
There was silence for a moment among the 
three. 

“That boy looks to me like a quitter,” at last 
remarked Jud. “He oughtn’t to run like a 
rabbit from a jack-o’-lantern.” 

Will started to answer when his quick ear 
caught the sound of returning footsteps. 

“Wait a minute, Jud,” he whispered. 
“Fred ’s no quitter.” 

The three lay .quiet without a sound. The 
steps came nearer and nearer and suddenly 
into the circle of the uncanny firelight strode 
the boy. The cold sweat of fear stood in 
drops on his forehead. His eyes glared 
aghast at the flaming face but his teeth were 
clenched and he carried a big club which he 
had caught up on his way back. Panting 


202 


THE BLUE PEARL 


with fright by sheer will-power he forced 
himself on until he was within striking dis- 
tance of the apparition. Heaving up his club 
with a gasp he brought it crashing down and 
the face disappeared in a cloud of flaming 
fragments. As Fred stood bewildered his 
three comrades stepped out from the under- 
brush. For a moment he looked at them and 
then for the second time that night turned 
and started off along the back trail with some- 
thing very like a sob in his throat as he real- 
ized how he had been tricked and shamed by 
his best friends. 

The three looked at each other without 
speaking. The joke had suddenly became se- 
rious as jokes have a dangerous habit of do- 
ing. Then Jud ran after the disappearing 
boy. 

“Fred, Fred,” he called, “don’t go off like 
this. It was only a fool joke of mine to square 
myself for those yellowjackets.” 

Fred stopped as the others came running up. 

“That’s all right, Jud,” he gulped, “I’m 
not sore at you a bit. I ’m only sorry that I 
scare so easy.” 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 203 

“Forget it,” counselled Jud, while Will and 
Joe patted him reassuringly on the back. 
“Anyone can be brave when he ain’t scared,” 
went on the old man. “It ’s the fellow who ’ll 
come back after he ’s run away who ’s really 
brave — an’ that ’s what you did.” 

In spite of all these well-meant words Fred 
decided to go back to the guest-lodge. 

“Someway I kind of don’t feel like visiting 
to-night,” he told them. 

The next day Fred wandered off by himself. 
Right after breakfast the rest of the party had 
started off to the fishing-grounds to fish with 
the great wooden hooks and kelp lines of the 
Indians for huge, flat halibut. 

“I ’m liable to get sea-sick in those jumpy 
bidarkas,” was the reason Fred gave to Will 
for not going. But there was another reason. 
He wanted to get off by himself and think 
things out. Noon found him far inland on a 
treeless table-land from which he could see 
the sullen, smoky, emerald-green of the sea 
far below. In front of him, as he walked, 
rippled silver-white waves of the plumed 
grass, with silky, white, feathery tassels, 


204 


THE BLUE PEARL 


broken here and there by russet-green patches 
of wild raspberry. Although it was mid-sum- 
mer there were patches of snow and ice on the 
slopes and in the gullies while a foot below 
the surface the ground was still frozen. Be- 
yond the plumed grass were other grasses of 
such a brilliant green that the shadows across 
them showed blue in contrast with the varying 
russets, reds, lemon-yellows and grays of the 
lichen-covered rocks. Beyond Fred found 
patches of berries. Will, the botanist of the 
party, had told him that there were no poison- 
ous berries in the far Northwest. Accord- 
ingly Fred sampled all that he met. Besides 
the raspberries and huckleberries he found a 
kind like a black currant and another one, the 
baked-apple berry, which looked like a de- 
cayed raspberry but had a most delicious flavor 
and fragrance. Beyond the plateau from the 
side of one of the encircling peaks hung a river 
of shining ice, one of the many glaciers which 
crept down the mountains to the bay below. 
From where it touched the table-land a mad 
stream rushed down to meet him, frothing and 
raging as it ran. At the edge of the ice were 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 205 

fields of flowers such as Fred had never im- 
agined. Some of them were strange to him. 
Others he had learned while botanizing in the 
East. The brilliant coloring of most of them 
was in vivid contrast with the stunted, with- 
ered growth of the rest of the wind-swept 
plain. There were masses of crimson and 
gold where red and yellow poppies grew and 
sheets of wild forget-me-not the color of the 
summer sky. Wild phlox made patches of 
wine-red and pure white and clumps of gen- 
tian formed pools of dark, vivid blue. Here 
and there devil’s paint-brush stained the 
ground an orange-tawny and tangles of the 
wild sweet-pea trailed everywhere their fra- 
grant blossoms tinted with every pastel shade 
of pink and blue, while nearer the stream, the 
soft, green grass was scarlet with the strange 
blood-dipped leaves of the painted-cup and 
purple, white and gold with iris. For long 
and long Fred drank deep of the sheer loveli- 
ness spread out before him. Under his care- 
less, happy-go-lucky ways the boy hid a great 
love for color and beauty as well as a sensitive- 
ness which few of his friends suspected him of 


20 6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


having. No one to watch Fred teasing Jud 
and joshing with Will and Joe, would have 
ever realized that he had left them all to-day 
because he felt hurt and shamed. Within a 
short time was due the trip to that mysterious 
island of enchantments and delights which no 
one might visit who had not proved his cour- 
age by some special deed of daring. Will and 
Jud had already won their way into the Order 
of the Bear Claw and Fred had no doubt that 
Joe would prove his courage at the first op- 
portunity that offered. Fred thought bitterly 
to himself of his own performances. Only 
last night he had run from a jack-o’-lantern. 
He had been pitched head-foremost into the 
air before a lot of grinning Indians by a sea- 
lion and had been scared by a harmless 
hair-seal even before they had landed on 
Akotan. 

Lately he had noticed that Negouac and all 
the other Indians, especially those who wore 
a bear-claw, seemed to treat him with a certain 
indifference. 

“I guess they all think I ’m a quitter,” he 
remarked to himself bitterly as he climbed 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 207 

along through the ice and rocks, following one 
of the sides of the glacier. As he ascended he 
suddenly saw far ahead of him a fox. It was 
smaller, chunkier and more heavily furred 
than the red and gray foxes which he had 
known back in the East and its color was a 
strange smoky blue. Fred recognized it from 
Jud’s description as the blue or Pribilof fox, a 
color variety of the Arctic white fox just as the 
black or silver fox may be a color variation 
from the ordinary red fox. Fred crouched 
behind an ice-covered boulder and watched 
the little animal which came trotting towards 
him along the edge of a cliff. Around it cir- 
cled a cloud of screaming birds, for the most 
part cormorants, and gulls which acted as if 
the fox had been doing a little egg-collecting. 
It was evident however from the intent way 
with which it watched them as they screamed 
and circled closer and closer that it was still 
hungry. As Fred saw the fox eye the scream- 
ing birds and follow their circles with his 
head, his mind turned back to what he had 
been thinking about. 

“I ’ve got just about as much chance to go 


208 


THE BLUE PEARL 


to Goreloi,” he said aloud, “as that fox has to 
catch one of those birds.” 

Then something happened which Fred re- 
garded then and since as an omen. The fox 
backed farther and farther away from the cliff 
as it continued to watch the circling birds in- 
tently. Suddenly it seemed to lose all inter- 
est in them. Curling up in the bright sun- 
shine it apparently fell asleep, a fluffy mass of 
wind-blown fur. The inquisitive birds began 
to circle closer and closer. All at once the 
soft thick brush of the fox was thrust up, 
gently moved back and forth, and then 
dropped back into the huddle of fur. Again 
and again this was repeated and each time the 
circling birds dropped nearer and nearer, 
screaming with curiosity as to what that wav- 
ing, fluffy plume might be. At last a herring 
gull approached within the danger-limit. 
The fox shot up five feet into the air and its 
narrow jaws closed on the gull’s neck with a 
death-grip. Swinging its quivering victim 
over its shoulder with a quick flirt of its head, 
the fox trotted off behind the rocks to enjoy 
his meal. 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 209 

“He did catch a bird,” exclaimed Fred 
awedly. “Perhaps that means that I ’ll get to 
the Island after all.” 

Down from the heights, back from the crys- 
tal glacier and away from the jewelled flower- 
fields he hurried. Some way the stillness and 
the beauty and the sight of the wild-folk had 
soothed and comforted him. He found as so 
many other people have, that if one is wor- 
ried or tempted or burdened, the hills are full 
of help for those who will but climb them. 

Just as the halibut fleet returned he reached 
the village. The bidarkas were coming back 
in pairs. The bow paddlers of each bidarka 
had crossed paddles so that the craft made a 
kind of catamaran. Between the two they 
towed the vast, struggling halibut. 

“Ook! Ook! Ook!” grunted Will, as he 
came within hailing distance. 

“Ook! Ook! Ook!” grunted Joe a mo- 
ment later with both hands pointing straight 
downwards from his chin. 

“What’s the matter with them?” inquired 
Fred of Jud who came in next with three In- 
dians and another halibut. 


210 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“They ’re tryin’ to tell you Injun fashion/’ 
explained Jud, “that we Ve sighted a herd of 
walrus. Big hunt to-morrow.” 

Before daybreak the next morning the little 
fleet of the walrus-hunters set forth in the thick 
fog that so often covered that coast. This 
morning they all went together in one of their 
long dug-outs fashioned from a single cedar 
log with fire and little adze-like hatchets and 
which had taken a full year in the making. 
In spite of their rude tools the boat was beauti- 
fully made on long waving serpentine lines. 
To-day it was manned with eight paddlers. 
Old Negouac sat in the stern steering with 
probably the largest paddle in captivity. 
Through the fog they glided noiselessly along 
the coast. Suddenly as they rounded a long 
point they felt the icy breath of the glacier 
while through the mist sounded a strange un- 
earthly noise half-way between the hoarse bel- 
lowing of a herd of bulls and the grunting of 
enormous pigs. It was the walrus-herd which 
had come down from beyond the Arctic 
Circle. As they came nearer and nearer to 
the sound, like the rising of a great drop-cur- 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 


21 I 


tain the mist rolled back leaving the shore 
clear while the bidarkas were still shrouded 
in the fog. Through the thinning wisps and 
wreaths of curling fog showed a scene that the 
boys never forgot. In the foreground in a 
great glare of vivid yellow from the low-lying 
sun a vast glacier stretched down from a gap 
in the encircling mountains. On one side of 
the glacier were a series of flat basalt rocks 
over which the surf boomed and broke. 
There were grouped a herd of animals so gi- 
gantic that they seemed as if they must be mon- 
sters from some other age. Their bodies were 
vast shapeless masses of flesh that might 
weigh from a ton up to three thousand pounds 
and were covered with naked, wrinkled, warty 
hides of a yellowish-brown color. Some of 
the largest were a full thirteen feet in length 
and fourteen feet in girth. It was the faces 
of the great brutes which seemed most alarm- 
ing and uncanny to the boys as they watched. 
Set deep in the wrinkled skin were small bulg- 
ing, flecked eyes of light brown which rolled 
back and forth and around and around in 
every direction. Long gray bristles set 


212 


THE BLUE PEARL 


thick on the upper lip made them seem 
like grim moustached ogres, while the 
gleaming two-foot ivory tusks gave a pecu- 
liarly menacing appearance to their huge 
uncanny faces. In a long line they lay 
upon the basalt rocks. At one end was an 
old bull, a monster whose size exceeded any- 
thing that Jud had ever seen before. Even 
old Negouac gave an exclamation of surprise 
when he saw the vastness of his girth. In a 
long line the monsters lay upon their basalt 
tables like vast slugs. Suddenly a walrus at 
the end of the line reared up, grunted once or 
twice and looked around in every direction. 
Then jabbing his nearest neighbor sharply 
with his tusks he lay down again to sleep. 
The prodded walrus next door roused up, 
grunted indignantly, looked all around with 
rolling eyes and sniffing nostrils and then 
passed the jab which he had received on to 
the next one, who went through the same per- 
formance in his turn. This primitive system 
of telegraphy went on unceasingly throughout 
the herd so that always there was one walrus 
who had been prodded into watchfulness and 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 213 

was on the alert for any danger. When the 
end of the line was reached the message was 
telegraphed back again by the tusks of the 
end walrus. 

Opposite the vast old bull floated just be- 
neath the surface of the water a walrus-cow. 
Out in the dim water she rocked to and fro in 
the swirling currents, bolt upright like a 
spar-buoy. Although on shore she looked 
like a huge moth-eaten hair-trunk, or a 
bloated shapeless bag of oil, yet in the 
water the unwieldy bulk took on lines 
of grace and motion never seen on land. 
As the fore-flippers, set flat at almost right 
angles to the body, swayed in the luminous 
gray-green water there was a suggestion of 
strength and even of speed in their motion. 
The muscles of the short, stumpy fore-arm 
were like thick, wire cables and were capable 
of hoisting a dead weight of two thousand 
pounds up on to an ice-floe or a rock-table. 
The hind-flippers had no legs but streamed out 
like a flat, notched tail far beyond the real tail 
of the walrus which was only about three 
inches long. The head seemed tiny compared 


214 


THE BLUE PEARL 


to the huge, gnarled body and the skull was so 
faced and reinforced with flat, solid masses of 
bone to bear the brunt of the pick-axe blows 
from the tusks, that it seemed as if there were 
no room for any brain at all. Yet along its 
own lines the walrus is one of the wariest and 
wisest of animals and the man or beast who 
judges its ability by its appearance is apt to 
be deceived. As this walrus-cow floated with 
her nostrils just out of water her dulled, 
bleared, popping eyes were shut. An oc- 
casional, automatic stroke from her fore-flip- 
pers kept her from drifting into the surf and 
she lay in the changing tides apparently asleep. 
‘Beside her vast bulk swam her calf. It was 
only about four feet long and had a close short 
brown coat of hair that contrasted with the 
naked skin of its giant mother. Its two canine 
teeth, which would not grow into tusks until 
after he had grown to the size of his parents, 
now showed only about two inches long. 
Sometimes it went off on long perilous expedi- 
tions fully six feet away from its guardian but 
it never stayed away more than a few seconds. 
Always some overpowering terror would drive 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 215 

it sculling back for dear life with its little 
fore-flippers until it butted into the vast bulk 
with its flat little head. Young as it was it 
had learned that sea and land are full of dan- 
gers for the babies of the wild-folk even when 
they can claim the lion of the North as father. 
Again it would nuzzle close under the shelter- 
ing protecting flippers of the cow and drink 
its fill of warm rich milk beneath the cold 
heaving water. Always the little calf watched 
the water carefully all about him and the 
least suspicious movement sent him scuttling 
back to his mother. 

Far up on the gleaming white of the glacier 
a cream-colored spot appeared. It grew 
larger and larger until when it reached the 
edge of the water it showed the long loose- 
jointed, lithe, snake-headed form of the polar- 
bear, the cruel, silent, swift tiger of the North. 
Suddenly it seemed to disappear. It had 
dropped to the white surface of the glacier 
and was crawling stealthily to the water’s edge 
with only its black muzzle, black lips and the 
black rings of its eyes showing against the 
white surface. Like a shadow it stole along 


21 6 


THE BLUE PEARL 


and slipped into the icy water with all of a 
shadow’s stillness. Diving deep the great 
bear swam diagonally toward the water be- 
yond the surf-swept walrus rocks where the 
walrus-mother rocked in the long swells that 
at the shore broke in thundering surf. Filling 
his great bellow-like lungs with a supply of 
air the bear swam swiftly and surely so deep 
under water that his fur looked like frosted 
silver. Not until he had passed through the 
surf and was in the still water beyond did he 
venture to the surface. Then only the tip of 
his black muzzle and a momentary gleam of 
his cruel little eyes appeared. The one look 
showed him the walrus-mother still sleeping 
with the calf playing happily around her. As 
it swam under the water on one of its little 
tours of exploration the little calf suddenly 
saw a spectral white shape shoot up towards 
him through the deep water. Before he 
could reach his mother or even the surface two 
sets of deadly, keen claws like curved chisels 
pierced deep into his woolly hide. So swift 
and stealthy was the attack that the calf was 
caught in a deadly grip and found itself speed- 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 217 

ing away without a chance to cry out 
or signal its plight to its sleeping dam. 
Fifty yards away from her the bear rose 
to the surface for a long breath. The 
struggling calf came up with him and gave 
one gurgling, half-strangled bleat almost 
drowned in the tumult of the near-by surf. 
It was enough. The walrus has bleared eyes 
but none of the sea-folk save only the sea-otter 
has a keener sense of hearing or smell. At the 
very first syllable of her calf’s cry for help the 
vast bulk of the slumbering cow righted itself 
and with a gurgling bellow she started under 
water like a submarine towards the sound. 
The unwieldy body seemed to yield and shape 
itself to the pressure of the water and as this 
one started for the shore its flat five-fingered 
fore-flippers beat the water under the thrust 
of the gigantic muscles of the pillar-like fore- 
legs with tremendous drives while the long 
hind-flippers which dangled so limp and use- 
less on dry land now whirled and drove 
through the water like twin screws. The bear 
had caught the sound of the raging bellow of 
the walrus even as it dived. Shifting its grip 


218 


THE BLUE PEARL 


it clamped its long glittering teeth deep into 
the furry neck of the calf and swung into the 
tremendous racing stroke that the polar bear 
has developed through the water-lanes and 
across wide stretches of troubled seas in its 
long hunts and far journeyings among the 
shifting ice-floes of the North. The white 
bear is perhaps among the swiftest swimmers 
of any of the animals which live on land but 
no land-animal can compete in swimming 
with the sea-folk. Burdened by the calf it 
plunged into the surf only a few yards ahead of 
the rushing bulk whose track in the deep water 
could be followed by the swirling bubbles and 
whirlpools which showed on the surface. As 
the bear emerged from the surf he found him- 
self close to the point where on a black flat 
rock at the end of the line, the largest bull of 
the herd lay sleeping until it was his turn to be 
prodded into sentry duty. Man excepted, 
there are few things in air, water or on earth 
which the grim white bear of the frozen North 
fears. He is a fighter by profession. Against 
wolf, wolverine, snowy owl and killer-whale, 
he contends for food and fights for the very 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 219 

blood of his life. Yet grim outlaw that he 
was this bear was not willing to try conclu- 
sions with a mother-walrus robbed of her calf. 
No land animal will willingly give a sea- 
fighter the odds of the water. Already she 
was so close that he could feel the surge of the 
water driven ahead of her, beat against his 
trailing hind-legs, for a polar bear like a 
crawl-swimmer uses mostly its fore-paws in 
swimming. Right in front of him towered 
the sleeping bull. The bear hesitated not a 
second. In spite of his tusks and bulk the 
bear preferred the chances on land with the 
bull to those in the water with the cow. 
Ordinarily he would have had a good chance 
to pass the vast sentinel bulk even dragging 
the dead calf which he clung to with all the 
tenacity of his fighting breed. Unfortunately 
for the bear by one of the grim ironies which 
fate inflicts upon the wild-folk as well as upon 
us humans this particular patriarch happened 
to be the mate of the mother-walrus. As she 
came up from the surf she saw the gaunt 
ghostly form of her foe with her dear-loved 
calf in his jaws escaping from her pursuit to 


220 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the safety of the rock and bellowed hoarsely 
her rage and agony at the sight. At the sound 
the vast bulk which blocked the way of the 
bear changed from a slug of shapeless flesh to 
the most terrible of all the land-animals of 
the northern world — an enraged bull-walrus. 
When all is said and done the walrus is the 
overlord of the Northland if once he asserts 
his kingship. Once aroused he is as irresist- 
ible as an avalanche. The lean, swift bear 
knew all this but he had no choice. Hard at 
his heels snorted the cow yearning to come to 
grips with him in the surf. Any choice was 
better than a duel to the death in the water 
with her. As his long claws clamped on the 
slippery rock-table he shook the salt water 
from his creamy white fur and stood for a mo- 
ment with the calf in his jaws and then 
whirled the three-hundred pounds of bone and 
blubber carelessly over one mighty shoulder 
as a cat might carry a rat. As he stood there, 
lithe and alert, one steel-shod paw advanced, 
he seemed the embodiment of the fierce, un- 
flinching, silent North. The sound of his 
mate’s distress-call aroused the bull to fury in 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 221 


an instant. Under his code he must fight to 
the death for mate or calf. He towered up 
on his fore-flippers six feet high while his gray 
whiskered face, wrinkled with rage, and glar- 
ing eyes made him look like one of the hor- 
rible trolls of northland legend. When he 
saw his calf dripping from the black-rimmed 
jaws of the bear he gave the fearful, snorting 
bellow which from a walrus-bull means kill- 
ing. Undaunted the great bear shifted his 
weight to his right paw, for the polar bear is 
left-handed, and with all his fierce strength 
struck directly up at his opponent. The five 
curved chiseling talons struck the awful face 
towering over him just above one of the wal- 
rus’s eyes, and cut through the thick hide like 
paper, destroying the eye and ripping off the 
whole side of the face clear down to the tusk. 
Dropping the calf between his fore-paws the 
bear pivoted like a boxer and delivered an- 
other full swing with his other steel-shod paw 
which struck the side of the vast wrinkled 
neck, ripping out a mass of hide and blubber. 
There are few animals in the world which can 
stand up against the crashing full-sweep 


222 


THE BLUE PEARL 


of a bear’s paw. It would have broken the 
neck of a musk-ox or wolf, but the three thou- 
sand pounds of braced blubber, bone and 
muscle never even rocked under the impact of 
the two mighty blows. As the hot blood 
streamed down from the awful track of the 
bear’s claws, the old bull roared with an un- 
earthly noise that seemed to come from under- 
ground, but there was never a sound from the 
bear. He fought as silently as some fell white 
ghost. Before the bear could disentangle his 
claws from the tough hide which they had 
pierced so deeply and recover his balance, 
the vast head tipped back until the gleaming 
two-feet tusks were just above the tense white 
body. There was an effortless bob of the grim 
head. In comparison with the sweeping, 
crashing strokes of the bear the attack of the 
bull seemed almost puerile, a casual dig with 
his tusks. Yet the fight was over. The bull 
had leaned forward as he struck so that the 
blow had meant that the stroke of the tusks was 
backed by a ton of blubber, brawn and bone. 
As the short tusks were withdrawn in place of 
the vibrant, fierce figure of a second before 



Frozen in a solid block of clear ice, towered a monster such as 
had not walked this earth for ten times ten thousand years 




THE LION OF THE NORTH 223 

there was only a shapeless mass of white fur 
dabbled with blood. Snorting with rage the 
bull again and again pounded trip-hammer 
blows on the battered body of the bear until 
it was only a pulp of bloody fur and mashed 
flesh and bone. The mother-walrus reached 
the beach just as the last blow was delivered 
and without a glance at the shattered body of 
the bear with one quick motion drew to her- 
self the motionless shape of her calf. She 
rubbed her huge head caressingly against the 
furry little body, making a kind of continual 
low mooing sound. Then as the calf did not 
answer she dragged her great bulk up on the 
rock and tried again and again in vain to per- 
suade it to nurse. Beside her the great bull 
filled with the madness of battle prodded his 
neighbor and roared with rage. As the 
nearest walrus to him caught the smell and 
sight of the blood of both walrus and bear he 
too bellowed with fury. In a few moments 
the whole line was roaring and raging, a mass 
of fierce, weaving heads, wild, rolling eyes and 
thrusting tusks. Other walruses, as if aware 
of the tumult by some sixth sense, began to pop 


224 


THE BLUE PEARL 


up from the bottom of the sea like horrible 
mermen, their mouths still full of the clams on 
which they had been feeding. Heedless of 
them all the cow held her dead calf close to 
her. Just then the mist rolled farther back 
and showed the maddened heads the bidarka 
just beyond the breakers. The sight infuri- 
ated the wounded bull. With a gurgling roar 
he shot off the rock into the water, followed 
by the whole herd. They swam concealed 
like submarines. Suddenly all around the 
canoe a ring of grim heads showed, throwing 
up the water like a herd of geysers as they 
came to the surface. Then snorting with rage 
the whole herd charged down upon the boat. 
For the first time the boys saw the Indians 
excited. None knew better than they what it 
meant for a walrus-herd to run amuck. They 
pounded on the gunwales of the boat and 
shrieked and yelled like madmen to scare them 
off. 

“Shoot! shoot!” bellowed old Negouac to 
the boys from the stern, waving his steering 
paddle. At the word the four repeating rifles 
went off in volleys that sounded like the rattle 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 225 

of machine-guns, but the dug-out was curvet- 
ing and bucking and prancing in the choppy 
waves so that many of the shots went wild. 
Some of the expanding bullets however 
reached their mark and the ring of hideous 
heads that approached the boat showed gaps 
here and there. Still they came nearer and 
just as the last shot in their magazines was 
fired the great bull burst up from the depths 
right beside Jud, throwing the water over him 
in sheets, and hooked his stout gleaming tusks 
in the edge of the gunwale. 

“Shoot! Shoot!” shrieked Negouac like a 
syren whistle from the bow. 

“Awick 00k — big devil-walrus,” groaned 
Akotan, whacking him over the nose with his 
paddle. The bull only snorted and pushed 
his tusks forward on the gunwale. Two 
inches further and they would hook over the 
edge of the boat and the ton of walrus weight 
would capsize them all. Crunching through 
the soft wood the fatal tusks slid slowly and 
grindingly forwards. There was no time to 
reload. It was then that Jud and his pipe 
saved the day. As the wind was off-shore 


226 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the old trapper had been smoking some of 
Big Jim’s peculiarly penetrating perique. 
No walrus can bear smoke. The reek from 
a camp-fire or the smoke from a passing 
steamer will drive a walrus herd from its floe 
and away from shore for days. Bending 
down until he looked right into the blood-shot, 
sinister remaining eye of the monster Jud 
puffed a mouthful of tobacco smoke directly 
into the gaping nostrils which were set in the 
top of the head of this ogre of the sea. The 
effect of that one puff was instantaneous. 
Closing his eye tight the old bull wrinkled his 
great muzzle and with a snort of disgust 
tipped backwards until the tusks tore their 
way out and with a tremendous lurch the boat 
went free. For a moment the ring of at- 
tackers gave back. Then Tilgalda from his 
end suddenly began to shout with all the 
force of his leathern lungs, “Back, back!” 
As the others bent to their paddles they caught 
a glimpse of something passing under the boat 
like a submarine. It was the outraged bull 
who had returned to the attack with a new 
plan which had evidently come to him under 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 227 

water. Instead of trying again to hook his 
tusks over the boat’s side from the surface he 
passed clear under the craft and turning over 
on his back ripped his thick tusks through the 
bottom of the boat. He chanced to start his 
drive directly under where Negouac was sit- 
ting and the force of the blow, backed with all 
the driving power of the bull’s weight, threw 
him up into the air and out into the gray 
water towards the ring of tusked heads 
that were closing around the boat. Without 
a sound the old man disappeared under the 
water, for like all of the Eskimos Negouac 
could not swim. The water rushed into the 
dug-out through the slashed bottom and the 
Indians began to bail frantically with their 
hands while Jud and Will and Joe tore off 
their shirts to caulk the leaks. Far out be- 
yond where Fred was sitting the old man came 
to the surface held up for a moment by his 
buoyant bird-skin parka. His face wizened 
and shrivelled with the fear of death seemed 
suddenly unutterably old, while his eyes stared 
mournfully into Fred’s, as if pleading for the 
last of his life doubly dear because so short. 


228 


THE BLUE PEARL 


As Negouac struggled in the water one of the 
bulls gave his battle-cry and swam slowly 
towards him. For a moment Fred stared hor- 
rified at the sight. Although a good swimmer 
he was afraid, terribly afraid, to plunge into 
that icy water. Even if he could hold the old 
man up it seemed certain that they would both 
be pierced by the tusks of some of the walrus 
herd. Suddenly there flashed into the boy’s 
mind the memory of the other times when he 
had yielded to his fears. He remembered too 
how one of the greatest of our presidents had 
once written that the best way for a boy to be- 
come brave was to always act as if he were not 
afraid. Slowly, slowly the old man’s face 
sank. Shivering and half-sobbing the boy 
threw off his coat, kicked off his heavy sea- 
boots and sprang into the sea. The water was 
death-cold and the chill of it ran like ice 
through Fred’s veins until he felt as if a cold 
hand had clutched at his heart. With a few 
quick strokes he reached Negouac. 

“Keep quiet,” he gasped, “or you ’ll drown 
us both.” The old man only grunted 
but never moved a muscle as Fred turned 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 229 

him over on his back and, holding up his 
head with both his hands, began to swim 
on his own back slowly and heavily towards 
the boat. As he swam Fred could watch 
the approach of the walrus. It had been 
slow at first but when the great beast saw 
that the swimmers were retreating he started 
towards them at full speed with a series of ter- 
rifying “ooks.” Fred swam with all his 
strength and the boat was not far away, but he 
never would have made it except for Jud. 
Nearer and nearer came the glaring eyes of 
the walrus and in spite of his most desperate 
efforts Fred seemed hardly able to move. At 
last he could feel the thrill of the water driven 
before his pursuer and hear his snorting 
breath close at hand. When the gargoyle 
head was almost at his feet the boy started to 
turn over and dive desperately with Negouac 
in his arms in the hope that he might avoid the 
first rush of the monster. Suddenly from 
what seemed a long, long distance away he 
heard Jud’s voice say, “Keep agoin’, boy. I ’ll 
tend to the bull.” Seeing Fred’s danger the 
old trapper had managed just in time to slip 


230 


THE BLUE PEARL 


a cartridge into his unloaded rifle. It was 
necessary to drive a bullet through the eye of 
the walrus into his brain. No other shot 
would stop his rush in time. The old man 
waited as long as he dared and steadied his 
rifle until the gleaming ivory tip of the farther 
sight stood full against the mottled brown of 
one of the walrus’ glaring eyes. Just as the 
beast’s muzzle grazed Fred’s foot Jud 
squeezed the trigger. There was a crack, a 
spurt of fire and a soft-nosed bullet passed 
upwards through the eye and expanding tore 
its way through the very centre of the great 
beast’s brain. Like a ton of lead the walrus 
sank while the rush of its great body passed 
harmlessly under Negouac just as Fred’s 
shoulders touched the boat. Half a dozen 
strong hands seized him and pulled him and 
Negouac into the boat. Over their shivering 
bodies the Indians threw all the coats which 
were not being used to caulk the leaking boat. 
There was no time to pay them any further 
attention. The boat was filling fast and the 
infuriated herd were closing in on them again. 
With two men unable to help, guns unloaded 


THE LION OF THE NORTH 231 

and the whole crew bailing and caulking al- 
ternately there seemed but little chance this 
time to stave off the attack. Then it was that 
Tilgalda, who was paddling bow, saved the 
day. As one of the largest of the herd cir- 
cled his end of the canoe the great Indian 
stood up to his full height and drove his na- 
tive bone-tipped harpoon deep into the broad 
back of the swimmer. At the rankling stab 
the vast body of the walrus plunged forward 
like a torpedo boat. The braided seal-skin 
rope fastened to the harpoon hissed and 
smoked over the gunwale. It finally brought 
up with a jerk that pitched the whole crew 
forward as the end of the line was reached 
which was knotted around a solid support set 
deep into the bow of the canoe. Instantly the 
long boat, heavily loaded as it was, whizzed 
through the water towards the village and 
whirled away from out of the very midst of 
the ominous crowd of threatening heads, nor 
did the maddened rush of the wounded walrus 
cease until the boat was right opposite the vil- 
lage. Then as it floated exhausted on the sur- 
face Jud killed it with a well-placed shot. 


232 


THE BLUE PEARL 


Tilgalda quickly fastened to the carcass a wal- 
rus-float made of a whole inflated seal-skin and 
helped the others paddle in the sinking boat. 
As they landed, old Negouac, shivering with 
cold and weakness, removed from 'his neck the 
vast curved claw which hung there and with- 
out a word in front of the tribe who had come 
down to meet them tied it around Fred’s neck. 


CHAPTER IX 

THE. SEA WOLF 

J UST at dawn one morning the skin flap 
of the guest-lodge was raised. Saanak 
stood framed in the opening. With his 
red-gold beard, blue eyes and towering height 
he seemed like Eric the Red come back to 
earth again. For a moment he stood looking 
at the boys who stared up at him sleepily. 

“To-day I hunt the whale,” he said. “Who 
goes with me?” 

For a moment no one answered. There was 
something mysterious about his face and deep- 
set brooding eyes. Even old Tilgalda with 
his twisted neck and head set awry was less 
uncanny than this blue-eyed Eskimo who spoke 
so seldom and so strangely. As Fred once 
said, he always seemed to be seeing something 
which was n’t there. The rest of the tribe felt 
the same way towards him. Even Negouac 
233 


THE BLUE PEARL 


234 

and Haidahn, chiefs as they were, treated 
Saanak, who held no rank whatever, with a 
respect which they showed few others. 

It was Joe who broke the silence. 

“I go,” he said briefly, scrambling out of 
his blanket. 

“Eat well,” said Saanak shortly. “Meet 
me by the shore,” and he strode off, passing 
old Negouac as he went. 

“What wanted the Whale-Killer?” inquired 
the old man a few moments later. 

“He hunts the whale to-day,” responded Joe. 
“I go with him.” 

Since they had known him the boys had 
never seen Negouac so upset. 

“It cannot be,” he said decisively. “None 
of the blood of the Great Chief may hunt with 
Saanak.” 

Joe looked at him obstinately. 

“I go,” was all he said. 

Negouac gave a helpless gesture and hurried 
away. Before the Argonauts had finished 
breakfast he was back again with Haidahn 
himself. The elder chief wasted no time. 

“It is not for you to go, Ilyamna,” he be- 


THE SEA WOLF 


235 

gan at once in his curious English. “There 
be no whale-hunters left in the tribe but 
jSaanak — all the others have been killed. 
Only his magic has saved him.” 

“I go,” was all that Joe would say. 

Haidahn tried again. 

“It is not necessary for thee to wear the 
Bear-Claw to go to Goreloi,” he said. “He 
who has once gone to Goreloi may always go. 
Stay with us,” went on the chief, speaking so 
pleadingly that Negouac stared at him in as- 
tonishment. “What know you of hunting the 
whale?” 

“Do you mean to say, Chief,” broke in Jud, 
who had listened open-mouthed to the conver- 
sation, “that old man Saanak goes out alone 
and kills real whales?” 

Haidahn nodded. 

“It can’t be done,” said Jud decisively. “I 
served a year on a whaler when I was a lad. 
He might go out in one of them skin-canoes 
an’ kill a blackfish with a bone-harpoon. 
They ain’t only about twenty feet long an’ 
don’t put up much of a fight, but he could no 
more kill an old humpback or a bowhead or a 


THE BLUE PEARL 


236 

hundred-foot sulphur bottom than he could 
kill an elephant with a pop-gun. As for a 
cachalot I ’ve seen one bite a whale-boat in 
two an’ kill a whole crew with one smack of 
its tail. What could a single Injun in a skin- 
canoe with a bone toothpick do against any of 
them?” 

“Yet,” persisted Haidahn, “Saanak hunts 
all whales — except one. Sometimes he is 
carried far out to sea. Always he comes back. 
Always he makes his kill.” 

“What ’s the whale which he does n’t 
hunt?” inquired Will curiously. 

“No man has ever slain the sea-wolf,” was 
Haidahn’s only reply. 

“That’s the killer-whale,” exclaimed Jud. 
“He ’s the swiftest, fiercest brute that swims. 
I ’ve seen a pack of ’em kill a seventy-five- 
foot right whale an’ swim down a fin-back. 
Onct I saw a single killer chew up a big baskin’ 
shark twice his size — an’ a baskin’ shark ’s 
some bad actor himself. There ain’t nothin’ 
in the sea that a killer ’s scared of,” finished 
the old trapper. 

“Nor on land,” chimed in Negouac unex- 


THE SEA WOLF 


237 


pectedly. “When hunting is bad in the water, 
killers swim up to the edge of the floe and 
change into great wolves and gallop across the 
ice. My three brothers hunt a gray wolf all 
day long once. When he tired out he jump 
into water, turn into killer-whale and swim 
away.” 

Jud nodded politely. 

“I never happened to see that myself,” he 
said, “but I would n’t put anything past a 
killer-whale. I don’t think though, Joe,” he 
went on, “that this Saanak is a safe chap to 
sign up with. He looks like a fellow who ’s 
all the time huntin’ for trouble — an’ generally 
findin’ it.” 

“I go,” said Joe for the fourth time, nor 
could the rest of the party say anything to 
make him change his mind. 

“You may go,” said Jud mournfully at last, 
“but will you come? — that ’s the question.” 

Breakfast over, the whole party went down 
to the beach where they found Saanak waiting 
for them, the tattooed whale-marks from nos- 
tril to ear gleaming red against his grim face. 
Drawn up on the sand was his pet, two-man 


THE BLUE PEARL 


238 

bidarka made of selected skins, oiled until it 
glistened and which he only used for his an- 
nual whale-hunts. In the bow compartment 
were his harpoons and lances. Negouac told 
the Argonauts that in Saanak’s tribe whale- 
hunting was hereditary. The secrets and the 
weapons of this big game sport of the seas were 
handed down from father to son in certain 
families, and when a hunter became famous 
throughout the tribe for his skill and success 
after death his body was embalmed and pre- 
served in some lonely cave. Thither before 
a great hunt each whaler would go alone and 
lay their weapons in the hand of the dead chief 
so that some of his virtue might pass into them. 

The harpoons had a handle six feet in length 
of some strange foreign wood which ocean 
currents had carried up from the South. To 
the head of this shaft was lashed a polished 
socket of walrus ivory. In this was fitted a 
spear-head, of which Saanak had several in 
the boat. They were some twelve inches long 
with barbs four or five inches broad and were 
hammered out of dull, soft iron. 

“That made from sky-stone,” observed 


THE SEA WOLF 


239 

Saanak as the boys examined them curiously. 
As they looked Jud told them of the great mass 
of meteoric iron which had fallen on one of 
the northernmost capes and from which all 
the Eskimos obtained their iron for genera- 
tions until an Arctic explorer brought it back 
for a museum and robbed thousands of little 
hunters of their sole supply of iron. 

In the stout shaft of this spear-head a round 
hole had been drilled and through this was 
fastened a coil of whale-rope beautifully 
plaited from tiny strips of tough walrus hide 
in a curious pattern unlike any braid which 
the boys had ever seen before. Negouac told 
them that sometimes it took a whole year to 
braid a hundred-foot whale-rope and that 
every strand was made of the finest selected 
strips of carefully cured leather. Once made 
a whale-rope was handed down as an heirloom 
from father to son in the whaling families. 
All three of the harpoon heads which the boys 
examined had a curious greasy surface show- 
ing that they had been plunged deep into whale 
blubber on many a successful hunt. On the 
flat side of each head had been carved curious 


THE BLUE PEARL 


240 

marks like little sticks set in bunches and lines 
and angles. Years later Will learned that 
those were magic runes, good-luck inscriptions 
which the old Norsemen were accustomed to 
carve on their weapons in their curious written 
language. Besides the harpoons Saanak had 
a couple of whale-lances. One had a keen 
iron point some three feet long set in a five-foot 
shaft while the other was shorter and tipped 
with smooth walrus ivory. 

In the stern cockpit where Joe was to sit 
there was nothing but one of the huge double- 
bladed paddles which he knew so well how to 
use. 

“Looks as if you ’re goin’ to be the crew,” 
remarked Jud, “while Mr. Saanak does the 
huntin’.” 

Joe said not a word but carefully placed be- 
side him his rifle and a couple of clips of car- 
tridges. Saanak watched his preparations 
scornfully. 

“Gun no good for whales,” he observed. “I 
lend you lance when we make fast.” 

“Wait a minute,” suddenly exclaimed Jud, 
and he hurried back to the guest-lodge to re- 


THE SEA WOLF 


241 


turn in a moment with a clip of curiously long 
cartridges unlike any which the boys had ever 
seen before. “Load up with these,” he said, 
thrusting them into Joe’s hands. “They’re 
high-power explosive cartridges an’ make a 
hole half as big as your hat. I would n’t 
waste ’em on you boys for ordinary shootin’ 
but I believe that even Fred here could hit a 
whale at harpoon-range — an’ he ’s probably 
the worst shot in the whole civilized world. 
Land one or two of these in Mr. Whale’s chest 
and he ’ll sit up an’ take notice no matter how 
big he is. Good luck!” and the old man 
slapped Joe cheerfully on his unresponsive 
back although very doubtful in his own mind 
whether he would ever see him again. 

Saanak gave them no time for any further 
good-byes. Motioning Joe into his seat he 
suddenly pushed the light bidarka away from 
the steep sloping beach — and the hunt was on. 

As they sped over the misty waters great 
Shishaldin muttered in the distance with its 
high head shrouded in vapors. Beyond the 
beach the frowning rock-walls which but- 
tressed the coast were covered with green and 


242 


THE BLUE PEARL 


gold sphagnum moss and tapestried with many- 
colored lichens. On them the big burgo- 
master gulls bred in thousands and circled 
overhead in stately flight while comical shovel- 
billed sea-parrots scurried rapidly and noise- 
lessly around the lower reaches of the cliff. 
Under the rapid paddle-beats of Saanak and 
Joe the little craft shot over the choppy waves 
through the pass and before long was skim- 
ming the lazy swells of the great bay without. 
As usual a portion of it was covered with the 
fog which is always a part of an Arctic sum- 
mer. Sometimes the mist would lift and they 
could see far across the gleaming waters. 
Again it would settle and the bidarka be lost 
in a white smother of clammy vapor. An 
hour went by nor had any game been sighted, 
although they were approaching the middle of 
the great bay which usually swarmed with life. 
Suddenly as they shot out of a tangle of mist- 
wreaths, the smooth water all around them 
broke and foamed as a herd of blackfish 
passed, small dark whales only about fifteen 
feet long of a dead black color with square 
bluff heads and side-fins shaped like cutlass- 


THE SEA WOLF 243 

blades. The mouth of each was so shaped as 
to give these little whales a smiling, happy ex- 
pression. As the jolly looking procession 
rolled past, Joe looked inquiringly at Saanak, 
knowing that the blackfish was the usual whale 
to be attacked by Eskimo hunters, but the bow- 
paddler gave no sign of even noticing them. 
It was evident that to-day he hunted only big 
game. Beyond the blackfish school the mist 
settled down again and a few moments later a 
gurgling, plaintive whistle sounded from the 
surface of the water with a strange unearthly 
tone unlike that of any bird or beast which Joe 
had ever heard. Then so suddenly that Joe 
swerved until he nearly tipped over the bi- 
darka, a great white back showed above the 
surface not six feet away, while at the same in- 
stant the uncanny whistle sounded again across 
the water. As the spectral white shape 
drifted past, Joe recognized the beluga or 
white whale, another one of the smaller 
whales hunted by Indians and Eskimos alike. 
Its hide furnishes the porpoise skin of com- 
merce and its flesh although palatable is oc- 
casionally dangerous, whole tribes having 


244 THE BLUE PEARL 

been known to be poisoned from feasting on 
it. Still Saanak gave no sign but paddled 
steadily toward the center of the bay. As the 
drop-curtain of the mist rose again they found 
themselves once more near the same school of 
blackfish that had passed them a few moments 
before. Suddenly from far out in the bay 
there was a gleam of blue that showed in the 
sun like the flash of polished steel. For an 
instant it shot above the surface of the 
water and then went under, only to reappear 
two seconds later a hundred yards nearer. As 
Saanak saw this blue flash approaching with 
such lightning-like speed he dropped his 
paddle, seized one of his lances and motioned 
to joe to be on guard. A moment later there 
flashed into sight that swift lancer of the sea, 
the sword-fish. This one was a monster of its 
kind nearly eighteen feet long with a long, 
keen ivory sword thrust out in front over four 
feet in length. As this giant herring whizzed 
through the water its magnificent back fin of 
blazing blue showed high above the surface 
and as it approached with the speed of an ex- 
press-train, its brilliant eyes blazed on either 


THE SEA WOLF 


245 

side of the long sharp sword. For the first 
time Joe realized how helpless an earth- 
dweller is when he meets the water-people in 
their own country. A sword-fish can drive its 
tusk through a foot of solid oak and it is 
about as easy to escape its rush as to side-step 
a cannon-ball. Fortunately for both of the 
hunters this one paid no attention to the 
bidarka. In a moment it was among the 
school of little whale and had buried its keen 
sword clear to the hilt in the dark side of a 
twenty-foot blackfish. With an indescribable 
twist and curve of its lithe body the sword- 
fish disengaged and plunged his sword into 
another. The red blood dyed the water all 
around the bidarka as the great fish leaped 
back and forth plunging, stabbing, twisting 
and thrusting until the startled herd sounded 
and dived and swam down deep to avoid this 
fatal freelance of the sea. The sword-fish 
followed them and in a moment the bidarka 
was alone on those stained waters. As they 
moved away both of the hunters showed 
their race. Two white hunters would have 
^talked over for hours every detail of the attack 


2 46 THE BLUE PEARL 

and their escape. Not a word was spoken by 
either Joe or the silent Saanak. On and on 
they fled over the heaving waters. As the day 
passed the mist burned away and finally the 
whole expanse of the bay showed clear before 
them. Suddenly far away across the smoky 
green water appeared what seemed a fleet 
of small craft each one showing a black flag 
hanging low over the water. As they came 
nearer Joe could count six in all. Back and 
forth the little fleet quartered, keeping together 
and coming nearer to the bidarka with each 
evolution until Joe could make out that the 
black flag which each of these pirates of the 
sea flew was none other than the inky black 
dorsal fin of the orca or killer-whale. As they 
approached closer each killer seemed to wear 
a patent-leather hide so smooth and black was 
their skin. Just back of their gleaming, sin- 
ister little eyes, these wolves of the sea showed 
a pure white blotch like a splash of white- 
wash, which was repeated again across their 
sides, just beyond the back fin. The throat 
and belly of each one were of the same pure 
white which contrasted sharply with the 


THE SEA WOLF 


247 


sombre black of the rest of the body. From 
its pointed, torpedo-like head to its sleek, 
double-fluked tail the orca is built for speed. 
To-day the well-drilled pack traveled so close 
to the surface that their fins and the rounded 
curves of their black backs showed constantly 
above water. As they swam each killer kept 
its place and distance so that their regular 
ranks produced an extraordinary effect of dis- 
cipline and power. Saanak signalled Joe to 
stop paddling and the bidarka drifted motion- 
less. With smooth swiftness the black band 
circled through the water on the look-out for 
some prey with which to satisfy their insa- 
tiable appetites. Once or twice one ap- 
proached close to the bidarka and seemed to 
look it over questioningly and then went on, 
evidently convinced that there was nothing 
very appetizing about this hollow motionless 
monster. Joe knew from the stories which he 
had heard about these giant sea-wolves that 
once wounded or aroused they would dash 
upon any moving thing within sight, which 
was evidently the reason why Saanak had 
stopped paddling. The further fact that he 


THE BLUE PEARL 


248 

made no effort to attack any of that fierce com- 
pany also convinced Joe that the orca was not 
included in the list of whales which Saanak 
hunted for food or glory. As the two watched 
they saw an instance of killer craft and ferocity 
which would well make any human hunter 
hesitate before engaging even the least of that 
black and white pack. Not far from the bi- 
darka towered a blue-and-green iceberg which 
had broken off from one of the glaciers and 
like some majestic crystal castle was sailing 
slowly down the bay. In the water by its 
farther end suddenly showed the vast bulk and 
small head of a cow-walrus, with a little wal- 
rus-calf swimming near her. As the mother- 
walrus up-ended in the water she looked like 
a huge black spar-buoy. The calf was 
only about four feet long and had a short 
brown coat of hair which contrasted with the 
naked skin of its giant mother. While the 
cow swayed and dozed in the current which 
swept by the berg the calf swam around on 
little exploring expeditions of its own, never 
going more than a few feet away from the 
vast bulk of its mother. Unfortunately for the 


THE SEA WOLF 


249 

calf the wicked little eyes of one of the orca 
band caught sight of its movements. Swerv- 
ing away from its companions with one sweep 
of its serrated tail the killer shot through the 
green water toward the unconscious calf. 
Aroused by some instinct of danger the latter 
looked up to see black death rushing towards 
it like an express train. With a little terrified 
bleat the baby-walrus sculled rapidly to the 
side of its sleeping mother and with a desper- 
ate effort clambered up on her blufif square 
shoulders and perched there seemingly out of 
harm’s way. Crafty as fierce the killer swept 
down upon the two and before the drowsy 
mother-walrus was fully awake, struck her 
huge floating body with a bump that sent the 
calf spinning through the air to land in the 
water with a splash ten feet away. There was 
an arrowy twist and curve of the sleek, black 
body and as the calf tried again to return to 
its mother, a dreadful mouth filled with a 
double row of huge pointed teeth opened at its 
side. There was another bleat of distress and 
pain as the fatal teeth sank deep into the soft, 
woolly little body; a worrying motion of the 


250 


THE BLUE PEARL 


great jaws, a gulp, and the calf disappeared 
down the insatiable maw of the sea-wolf, 
which wheeled and started back to rejoin its 
band. It was not to escape unscathed. As 
the grim jaws closed on the calf, the mother- 
walrus, with a raging bellow, started toward 
the killer. Her shapeless body seemed 
suddenly to develop lines and curves of unsus- 
pected speed and before the orca, swift as it 
was, could rejoin its band, the walrus was 
upon it. Too late to save her calf’s life she 
was in time to avenge his death. Before the 
smooth black and white body of the killer- 
whale could swerve out of her path the walrus 
had sunk both of her long tusks deep into its 
back. The orca twisted and bent like a bow 
under the pain of the stab until at last 
it fairly tore itself away from the piercing 
tusks, which left ghastly wounds from which 
the hot blood poured in jets. The wounded 
wolf of the sea gnashed and snapped at the 
shoulders of the cow, but even a killer’s iron 
jaws are powerless against the three-inch 
armor-plate which protects the neck and 
shoulders of a walrus. As the keen tusks 


THE SEA WOLF 


251 

again grazed its flank the orca wheeled and 
dashed through the water to take its place 
again in the pack. As it reached the orca 
company still quartering back and forth in 
ordered ranks, the wounded killer met with 
an unexpected and appalling reception. At 
the first scent and sight of the gaping slashes 
on its back, the whole pack of sea-wolves 
were transformed. Breaking ranks they 
leaped like tigers upon their unfortunate 
companion and with their steel-sharp teeth 
literally tore it to pieces. The water was 
churned into a bloody foam by the gnashing 
jaws of the attackers and the tortured twistings 
and turns of the wounded orca as it tried in 
vain to escape. The struggle stopped as 
suddenly as it began. One moment the water 
was a welter of froth and blood, of leaping 
bodies and snapping jaws. The next the 
killers were back in their ranks and rang- 
ing the sea as if nothing had happened. Of 
the wounded orca there was not a trace. Yet 
the insatiable appetites of that fierce pack were 
only whetted by their cannibal feast and they 
patrolled the waters on the look-out for more 


THE BLUE PEARL 


252 

prey while from the edge of the berg the 
mother-walrus bellowed in vain for the calf 
that would come back to her no more. A 
moment later the vast iceberg shook and 
swayed, while far under water a sound as of 
some enormous body rubbing against the rough 
ice could be distinctly heard. Suddenly the 
sea boiled like a pot and up through the foam- 
ing water showed first the huge head and then 
part of the body of one of the largest of all 
created mammals, the right whale. It had 
been rubbing off barnacles and the Crustacea 
called whale-lice against the base of the berg. 
Enormous plates of bone on either side of its 
head came together at the front, making a rude 
prow which gives this whale its other name of 
bow-head. For a moment Joe gasped. The 
vast body stretched away through the water 
a good sixty feet. The huge head, which 
showed first, was more than twenty feet from 
the blunt nose to the short fore-flukes where 
the mighty neck began. Before the whale had 
sounded it had been feeding by the simple pro- 
cess of swimming with its mouth open where 
clouds of minute Crustacea had stained the 


THE SEA WOLF 


253 

water red and brown. Sifting these through 
a sieve of swinging baleen or whale-bone, 
which with a right whale takes the place of 
teeth, it had compressed the mouthful with its 
tongue, a two-ton mass of flesh, and swept it 
down to its three-inch gullet. Thereafter it 
had spent an hour and a half under water, 
which is the extreme limit of time during 
which a right whale may stay away from the 
surface. 

As the double jet of vapor which marks a 
bow-head, spouted aloft, every sinister black 
fin of the killer squadron wheeled and sped 
toward the unreckoning monster. It did not 
seem possible that this dark pack of the sea 
could pull down the mammoth whale whose 
bulk was a hundred times larger than that of 
any one of its assailants. Yet the contest was 
not so uneven as it appeared. The bow-head 
could not escape by diving to unknown depths. 
For its very life’s sake it must stay on the sur- 
face for over an hour and breathe deeply of 
the upper air. This whale was an old bull 
cased from head to tail in two feet of blubber 
and its speed was less than half of its lean. 


254 


THE BLUE PEARL 


lithe opponents. Unlike the terrible cachalot 
or sperm-whale it had no teeth. While its 
ponderous half-moon flukes could dash the 
life out of any orca on which they might land, 
the arrowy speed of the killers made them 
comparatively safe from any such attack. 
Remained only its vast bulk for a protection — 
and mere size avails little against speed and 
skill. 

As the killer-pack encircled the doomed 
whale, Saanak with a quick turn of his paddle 
shot the bidarka into the lee of the iceberg 
where it was partially protected by a sunken 
reef of ice which jutted out under water from 
the wall of the berg. In a fight for the cham- 
pionship of the sea he was firmly convinced 
that the contestants were entitled to a free field 
so far as Joe and himself were concerned. At 
that moment the great whale seemed to sense 
the approach of its enemies and its vast bulk 
shot away from the iceberg a hundred feet or 
more where it could have free play for its 
flukes. The attack of the killers was so swift 
that the two hunters could scarcely see what 
had happened. All in an instant the sea broke 


THE SEA WOLF 


255 

into a mass of waves and out of a welter and 
smother of froth and foam the vast bulk of the 
whale sprang into the air and fell back with 
a crash that could be heard a mile away. In 
and out of the spray leaped and darted the 
smooth black forms of the killers. Around 
and around the whole group wheeled and 
whirled while cavernous bellowings sounded 
as the beset bull fought for air. At regular 
intervals one after another of the orcas sprang 
into the air and with a smashing blow of tail 
and fin came down upon the rounded back of 
the whale with an impact that shook even its 
braced and padded bulk. Once as the bull 
up-ended and stood almost upright in the 
water, its vast head showed above the foam 
and the hunters saw the cruel methods of the 
killers. Two of the largest of the band had 
clamped and locked their terrible teeth deep 
into either side of the whale’s vast lower jaw 
and hung there like bull dogs, dragging down 
with all of their weight and strength in an 
attempt to force open the great cavern of the 
mouth. Tipping backwards until it swung 
its worrying opponents clear of the water, the 


256 THE BLUE PEARL 

great whale tried in vain to break their hold. 
Finding that their locked grip was not to be 
broken the old bull threw himself forward 
with another crash, evidently attempting to fall 
upon one or both of his tormentors. It was in 
vain. Swinging their supple bodies to one 
side the killers easily avoided the crushing 
smash of the whale’s fall. The drop threw 
its great flukes clear of the water. Swinging 
them like a scythe the bow-head struck out at 
random. By a chance blow one of the flukes 
struck a killer full on its back and sheared 
through flesh, fin and bone, cutting the black 
body almost in half. As before the orcas 
sprang upon their wounded comrade and an- 
other cannibal feast followed which only 
ended when the last fragments of the strug- 
gling killer had disappeared down a dozen 
gaping gullets. While this was going on a 
fearsome ally of the black band appeared. 
Up from the depths drifted a sinister shape 
whose undershot jaw, studded with cruel saw- 
edged teeth, marked it as a member of the 
shark family. Its cold, greenish, implacable 
eyes glowed as it caught sight of the wounded 


THE SEA WOLF 


257 


whale. The upper lobe of the forked tail of 
this new-comer tapered out in a crescent curve 
of flexible bone nearly as long as the rest of 
its twenty-foot body and edged like a scimi- 
tar. This whip-like tail identified the mon- 
ster as a thresher shark which is often found 
fighting on the side of a killer-band for a share 
of the booty. As it approached the bow-head, 
the shark suddenly balanced itself upon its 
head so close to the surface that its enormous 
flail-like tail curved clear out of the water. 
Diving downward it landed a smashing blow 
on the back of the whale with this curved 
weapon, which echoed across the bay and cut 
out a strip of blubber five feet long. The noise 
seemed to arouse the orcas, for one after an- 
other they followed suit. Bending their lithe 
bodies like salmon leaping a water-fall, they 
sprang into the air and landed one after an- 
other upon the great whale’s broad back. 
The two grim killers hanging to the whale’s 
jaw had kept their grip through feasting and 
fighting and never ceased to drag downwards 
with all their weight and strength. Little by 
little the great whale’s strength waned. It 


258 THE BLUE PEARL 

was not built for endurance and the storm of 
blows and slashes which fell upon it without 
an instant’s cessation little by little sapped its 
vitality. The bellowing sound of the air 
forced in and out through its blow-holes 
changed to gurgling groans as more and more 
water mixed with the air and the vast jaw 
drooped open a few inches as the worrying 
killers at its head increased their efforts. 
With a last rally the whale stood upright in 
the water and bringing its jaws together once 
more shook its great head like a bull trying to 
dash off a pair of worrying dogs. At this mo- 
ment another fatal ally of the killer-band ap- 
peared. Across the waters lashed into foam 
shot the same sapphire flash that had ap- 
proached the blackfish. Towards the whale 
fighting for its life whizzed like a torpedo the 
sword-fish. As the great mammal raised its 
head the fierce sea-rover drove its sharp lance 
clear to the hilt just below the whale’s neck 
where beats the gigantic heart. It was a fatal 
blow. Instantly the clouds of white spray 
from the blow-holes turned a dark red and 
the stricken whale whirled around and around 


THE SEA WOLF 


259 

with trembling, shaking movements in its 
death-flurry. Little by little the lower jaw 
sagged until the great cavern of a mouth 
screened by swinging whale-bone fell open. 
Within showed the vast soft tongue. On the 
instant, fighting and struggling like demons for 
a place, the killers thronged in and snapped 
off great masses from the two-ton tongue. 
This was the prize for which they had fought. 
Almost instantly it was devoured and in bal- 
anced ranks the black fins started away. The 
shark tore off masses of blubber with its under- 
shot jaw until it sank almost too gorged to 
swim. The sword-fish apparently received 
nothing from the fight save the pleasure of 
again and again stabbing its sharp sword into 
the blubber-bound body. 

Joe had watched the killers frowningly. A 
great disgust and hatred for these cruel black 
devils of the sea had possessed him. Suddenly 
around the bend of the berg whirled the last 
of the pack which had lingered behind the 
others. As its deep-set, evil, little eyes caught 
sight of the bidarka with a flirt of its supple 
body it swerved and looked the little craft 


26 o 


THE BLUE PEARL 


over challengingly. It was too much for 
Joe’s pride. Already unconsciously he had 
resented the brute savagery of these wolves of 
the sea. Now every human instinct revolted 
against the arrogance of this one. In a flash 
his rifle was at his shoulder. There was a 
shout of warning from Saanak but Joe heeded 
it not. Aiming carefully at the black fore- 
shoulder he pulled the trigger. The next in- 
stant what seemed an avalanche of fierce flesh 
rushed down upon the bidarka. Saanak 
dropped his paddle and seized a harpoon in 
either hand. As the monster rushed into 
range he buried first one and then the other 
deep into the black vibrant back. So far as 
stopping the rush of the killer they might as 
well have been knitting needles. With his 
eyes gleaming like blue fire the Norselander 
seized a lance, prepared to die fighting. Joe 
fired two more shots. One bullet struck 
within the gaping steel-lined jaws and ex- 
ploded harmlessly. The other landed lower 
down and burst well within the sheathed bones 
of the neck. Although blood spouted from 
the wound it did not slack the rush of the 


THE SEA WOLF 


261 


killer in the least. Another second and it 
seemed as if the black torpedo-like head would 
crash through the flimsy side of the bidarka. 
Just as Saanak stabbed desperately at the open 
jaws the orca shot up to the surface of the 
water and hung there struggling. It had 
grounded on the concealed reef of rough ice 
which stretched up to within a few inches of 
that surface and back of which Saanak had 
placed the bidarka. For an instant the black 
and white body hung not two yards from the 
boat, struggling and lashing with all its fierce 
length in order to win the deeper water be- 
yond. Slowly the grim form slid forward 
and Saanak plunged his stabbing-lance again 
and again into the mottled hide, but the killer 
only redoubled its efforts to reach the bidarka. 
Little by little the vast body wormed its way 
across the rough ice until it seemed as if one 
more plunge would send it into the deeper 
water beyond where the bidarka lay. Two 
seconds more would decide. Saanak stabbed 
once more, driving his lance in with all his 
weight and strength behind it. There was 
a sharp crack and with a groan the huge Es- 


262 


THE BLUE PEARL 


kimo found himself holding only a broken 
handle in his hand. 

“Stoop down,” commanded Joe sharply. 
Involuntarily the other obeyed. As the killer 
surged forward there was the crash of a rifle- 
shot followed instantly by another. Both bul- 
lets struck one after the other at the angle 
where the neck of the killer joined the body 
and exploded as they met the heavy bones be- 
low the black skin. The effect was miracu- 
lous, taking into consideration the size of the 
orca and the diminutive bullets. As they 
burst they tore away the whole upper ventri- 
cles of the heart of the killer. With one last 
plunge it shot off the reef and its steel jaws 
snapped together in its death struggle not two 
feet from the bidarka. As the struggles died 
away Saanak fastened a float to the great body 
and drew out his harpoons one after the other. 
Not until then did he turn to the Indian boy. 

“Wear this, thou Killer of the Sea Wolf,” 
was all he said, but against Joe’s chest dangled 
the Bear-Claw. 


CHAPTER X 

MAHMUT 

F OLLOWED a long resting time. Only 
the Shuman knew the date of the trip 
to Goreloi. Day after day went by and 
still he gave no sign while the Argonauts went 
fishing on the bay and hunting with Tilgalda 
and Negouac. At first they tried to make new 
acquaintances among the tribe but always the 
Indian boys and young men seemed uneasy 
and refused to talk much when the visitors 
were around. At last Will spoke to Ne- 
gouac about it, for they had seemed far more 
friendly when the Argonauts first landed than 
they did now. 

“Those who wear the Bear-Claw are men 
apart,” was all that the chief would say. 

“I ’m getting kind of tired of this ‘apart’ 
business,” complained Fred a few days later. 
263 


264 THE BLUE PEARL 

“I don’t care about fishing and I ’m not much 
of a shot.” 

“You ’ve said it, boy,” agreed Jud heartily. 
“Not much of a shot is right. If there were a 
flock of balloons goin’ by at thirty feet you 
could n’t get one with a shot-gun.” 

“None of these chaps will play around with 
me,” went on Fred, pretending not to hear the 
interruption. “I want something to do.” 

Negouac looked worried. It was evidently 
part of his duties to keep these visitors from 
afar amused. 

“I talk to Haidahn,” he said finally. 

That night the old chief joined them around 
the camp-fire and a few moments later was 
followed by the giant Saanak. Ever since 
their adventure with the orcas the whale-killer 
had attached himself to the Indian boy and to- 
night he curled himself up near Joe at the edge 
of the firelight with Tilgalda, at a respectful 
distance from the chiefs. 

As they sat full-fed around the fire, the talk 
turned to hunting and fishing. The Indians 
were never tired of telling and hearing about 
their lesser brethren of earth and air and 


MAHMUT 


265 

water. They spoke of the beast-folk as of 
friends or enemies whom they had learned to 
respect or fear or hate from long lifetimes of 
meeting with them. Some were brave like 
the bear, others were cruel and treacherous 
like the wolf-people and there was the malig- 
nant carcajou, the wise beaver and the crafty 
fox. The habits of all the animals, their likes 
and dislikes and their strength and weaknesses 
all seemed an open book to these hunters whose 
very lives often depended on their knowledge. 

“You certainly know them all,” remarked 
Will at last admiringly when the talk flagged a 
little. 

“All but one,” said Negouac after a pause. 

“Which one?” inquired Fred, much in- 
terested. 

For a moment no one answered. 

“Which?” persisted Fred. 

“Mahmut,” at last muttered Tilgalda with 
his strange sidelong glance. 

“Mahmut,” repeated Jud. “That means 
Monster.’ What does it look like?” 

Once more the same silence fell upon the 
little group. Then Tilgalda spoke again. 


266 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“He live far underground,” he said in a low 
voice. “When he come aboveground he die. 
Something of evil come to him who look upon 
Mahmut alive or dead. He one of bad-luck 
animals.” 

“Bad luck animals!” scoffed Jud, “there 
ain’t no such thing.” 

Haidahn looked at him reprovingly. 

“White men know nothing about animals,” 
he said at last. “Many of them bring bad 
luck. Mahmut is one. Another, men meet 
on the northern ice, a little black animal about 
size of mouse with long nose and crooked 
jaw.” 

“One of the shrews,” ejaculated Will the 
naturalist. 

“Unless man stands still and keep talking,” 
continued Haidahn, “little animal runs at him, 
burrows down under his skin to his heart and 
kills him.” 

“Fred, he ’d be safe,” murmured Jud. 

“But what about this Mahmut?” persisted 
Will. 

“My brother he saw Mahmut,” went on 
Tilgalda, “and was killed by bear. Then I 


MAHMUT 267 

go to look at it and the next day bear nearly 
kill me.” 

“What does it look like?” queried Fred. 

“Big, big,” returned the Indian, “bigger 
than this teepee and covered with long hair. 
Little pig eyes, big curved teeth twice as long 
as a man, long nose down to the ground.” 

There was a silence while the Argonauts 
considered the matter. It was evident to all 
that the Indian was trying to describe some- 
thing which he had actually seen. 

“The only animal which is as big as a teepee 
and has teeth longer than a man and a nose 
which touches the ground,” Will finally said, 
“is an elephant, and there certainly are n’t any 
elephants up here. Where was it that you 
saw Mahmut anyway?” 

“One day to the west near the great glacier,” 
returned Tilgalda. “He stand in middle of 
great block of ice. I not know whether he 
dead or only asleep he stand so still. He very 
dreadful to look upon.” 

His hearers realized that whatever the 
strange animal was it must have been some- 
thing fierce and unusual to have frightened a 


268 


THE BLUE PEARL 


seasoned old hunter like Tilgalda, who did 
not fear to meet a grizzly single-handed, or 
to take his chances with a wolf-pack. 

“Can you guide us there?” Will asked 
finally. 

Tilgalda looked at Haidahn doubtfully. 

“Take them,” said the latter at last. “It 
may be that the medicine of the white man 
will keep them safe.” 

“You Ve said something,” assented Jud, pat- 
ting his rifle. “I carry a little good medicine 
here that will take care of any kind of magic.” 

Early the next day the Argonauts were on 
the march, with Tilgalda as a guide. All the 
morning the party crept through deep ravines 
and worked their way through mountain 
passes and defiles until noon found them on 
a little plateau. Across a wide valley they 
could see a glacier winding its way down an 
opposite peak like a vast shining serpent. 
Masked by bare mountain ranges it could only 
be seen from the one point where they stood 
and one might hunt that country for a life- 
time nor ever know that there was a glacier in 
the heart of that tangle of impassable cliffs 


MAHMUT 


269 

and towering peaks. As they started to cross 
the table-land they found their path barred 
by a sphagnum bog, probably the remains of 
what had been a mountain-lake a thousand 
years before. For a hundred acres the ground 
was covered with the green-gold sphagnum 
moss which held the water like a sponge and 
into which they sank knee-deep when they at- 
tempted to cross. Everywhere were tiny sap- 
lings of spruce and hemlock sometimes join- 
ing together in thickets but usually scattered 
here and there over the broad wet expanse 
where in places the water had collected into 
pools. 

“How much farther do we go?” inquired 
old Jud, drawing his feet disgustedly out of 
the bog into which he had sunk deep at the 
very first step. Tilgalda waved his hand 
toward the opposite mountain-side some five 
miles away. 

“Well,” asserted the old trapper, as he sat 
down on the dry bank, “here is where Judson 
Adams, Esq., lies down an’ takes it easy for an 
hour or so. We ’re near enough the place so 
that there ain’t no special hurry.” 


270 


THE BLUE PEARL 


The rest of the party followed his example, 
all except Will, who as the scientist of the 
party longed to examine more closely that 
sphagnum bog. There are always rare 
orchids and strange flowers to be found in 
sphagnum bogs and even the birds which 
haunt them are different from those which are 
seen anywhere else. To-day as he stopped at 
the edge of the marsh he heard a loud, un- 
familiar song which sounded something like 
“Chip, chip, chippy, chippy, chippy, chippy, 
chippy.” The singer was a gray bird with 
a line over its eye like that of a red-eyed vireo, 
which it much resembled, except that it had 
the pointed warbler beak which when it sang 
opened so widely that it seemed as if it would 
split apart. For a moment Will stared at the 
bird with all his might and at last recognized 
it as the rare Tennessee warbler which an 
expert ornithologist had pointed out to him 
in migration as one of the rarest of the war- 
blers, telling him that its nest and nesting 
habits and even its song were almost unknown. 
Will had the spirit of the true naturalist to 


MAHMUT 


271 

whom a new bird, a new flower or a new nest 
is like hidden treasure. 

“You fellows stay here and rest,” he said. 
“I ’m going to explore this marsh,” where- 
upon he plunged in, followed by the faithful 
Fred, who ever since the year before had been 
trying to get his merit badge in bird and 
flower study. Just beyond the Tennessee war- 
bler came a jingling little song something like 
that of a chipping sparrow from another bird 
which had a chestnut top-knot and a quaint 
habit of constantly wagging its tail up and 
down. When Will saw that its throat and 
breast were of a dingy white he recognized the 
palm warbler, the Western relative of the 
Eastern yellow palm warbler with its bright 
yellow underparts, the first of all the warblers 
to come north in the spring migration. As he 
listened to the singers he realized that some- 
where in that marsh were hidden their almost 
unknown nests. None of the bird-books 
which he had read gave any information about 
the nesting habits of these birds but he and 
Fred at once made up their minds to be among 


272 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the favored few who had actually seen the 
nests of these warblers. Accordingly they 
splashed into the marsh, followed by loud jeers 
from Jud, who could not imagine any one hunt- 
ing a bird unless it were good to eat and in a 
few moments were out of sight behind a fringe 
of bushes. 

It was Fred the novice who had the first 
luck. Splashing through the wet moss he 
parted the long grass and matted twigs in every 
likely place within reach with a long stick, 
in accordance with the most approved methods 
of experienced birdnesters. Suddenly he 
saw peering out from the side of a tussock the 
little spectacled face of a Tennessee warbler. 
As he came nearer the gray bird slipped away 
like a shadow, lit an instant on a nearby bush 
and then seemed to fade away, giving only a 
few faint alarm-chips as she went. There, 
overhung by grass and shaded by the four 
green leaves of a dwarf cornel and beneath a 
tiny spruce sapling, was a little nest set in the 
side of a sphagnum tussock and made entirely 
of dry grass. It contained six white eggs pep- 
pered thickly with tiny russet-brown specks. 


MAHMUT 


273 

For a long time the two boys stared into the 
nest of a Tennessee warbler. Probably the 
ornithologists who had found this nest could 
be counted on the fingers of one hand, and both 
boys felt that never-to-be-forgotten thrill 
which every bird-student feels when he first 
discovers a new and unknown nest. 

This was but the beginning of one of the 
most delightful hours that either of the boys 
had ever spent. It was Will who made the 
next discovery. From under a Labrador-tea 
bush a bird flashed out not four feet away, 
alighted on a nearby branch and by the 
twitching of its tail identified itself as the palm 
warbler. The nest was on the ground and 
made of fine grass and horse-hair with an inner 
lining of gray and white feathers and held 
four long, white eggs wreathed at the larger 
end with a reddish-brown aureole. After 
this they found other nests of both these varie- 
ties which were common in that marsh. Al- 
ways the feather-lining identified the dwelling 
of the palm warbler and Will told Fred that 
this was the only warbler’s nest found on the 
ground which was lined with feathers, al- 


274 


THE BLUE PEARL 


though several of the tree-nesters of that fam- 
ily such as the myrtle, the black-poll and the 
pine warblers always insisted upon feather- 
lined homes. 

As they came beyond the last palm war- 
bler’s nest Will suddenly pointed out to Fred 
a tiny northern hare crouching under a bush. 
It could not have been more than a few days 
old but already it had learned the first lesson 
of all the hare-family — to lie quiet no matter 
what happens. Unfortunately for Bunny its 
soft nose was covered with the fierce mos- 
quitoes of which the marsh was full and in 
spite of itself it could not avoid twitching it 
slightly from time to time as the sting of their 
bites became unendurable. It was this tiny 
movement which had caught Will’s eye. 
Both boys crept up until they were within two 
feet of the little animal, which still lay per- 
fectly quiet, and it was not until they stroked 
its soft back that with a tremendous bound it 
leaped the bush and disappeared in the marsh 
beyond. 

As the boys beat back and forth across the 
marsh from mid-sky dropped a sweet whinny- 


MAHMUT 


27 5 

ing note like the tones of some high-hung 
aeolian harp. At first they could see nothing. 
Then a black speck suddenly showed and vol- 
planing down came a bird with a long beak 
and flashing wings whose rapid beats made the 
wing-song to which they had listened. As it 
coasted down the sky and disappeared in the 
marsh Will recognized the Wilson snipe 
which he had seen in the spring passing 
through Cornwall in migration. Here it was 
nesting. For a long time they searched for 
its rare and well-hidden nest. It was not until 
Will stepped on the very tussock where the 
mate of the singer was brooding her beautiful 
eggs that she fluttered off her nest of withered 
fern. 

Everywhere were painted trilliums, studies 
in triangles. In the center of triangular 
white petals was splashed a carmine red tri- 
angle while the petals were set in a green tri- 
angle of sepals which in their turn were en- 
closed in a reversed triangle of green leaves. 
Beyond the part of the bog where the snipe’s 
nest was found they came to a curious peat 
formation. It seemed to be filled with tiny 


276 THE BLUE PEARL 

matted roots and the peat itself cut like black, 
smoth wax. Poking a stick down through the 
layer of peat Will found a solid mass of under- 
lying ice which never melted even in mid- 
summer. The ground was covered with moss 
and tiny stunted, spreading trees. Here and 
there were pitcher-plants and sheep-laurel and 
dwarf larches and spruces. Overhead now 
and then flew pairs of red-breasted mergansers 
so near that both the boys could see the dark- 
green crested head of the drake with a white 
ring around the neck and the white, black- 
barred wings. Always the female mer- 
ganser led the way, the male flying submis- 
sively behind her. In one place was a bowl- 
shaped hollow nearly filled by a spreading, 
stunted spruce tree. As they approached this 
there was a loud rustling and pattering and 
suddenly from under the fringe of the tree 
burst a female merganser that flew of! like a 
bullet, squawking loudly as she went. Fred 
crawled in under the tree and found the nest 
about six inches in diameter and four inches 
deep rimmed around with down taken from 
the bird’s breast, while the bottom was lined 


MAHMUT 


277 

with fragrant bay-leaves. It contained nine 
eggs which looked much like brown hen’s 
eggs except that they were more oval. As 
they came back to the main bog from the tops 
of the taller trees they heard a curious song 
which was unfamiliar even to such an ex- 
perienced bird-expert as Will. “Chickaree, 
chickaree, chickaree, chick,” it sounded on all 
sides of them with a peculiar bell-like timbre 
something like the ringing notes of a Carolina 
wren. Twice the bird would sing this loud, 
ringing strain and then would come a strange 
bar of melody almost like a little laugh set to 
music. A moment later there would come a 
series of notes like those that a fish-hawk gives, 
“Chu, chu, chu, chu.” It did not seem pos- 
sible that all of these different songs came from 
the same bird. At last, however, with much 
difficulty Will managed to focus his field- 
glasses on the singer and to his great surprise 
found that it was the ruby-crowned kinglet, 
that tiny bird with the concealed red crest 
on the crown of its head and a wing-bar. 
In migration Will had often heard its intri- 
cate, beautiful song but found that that was 


THE BLUE PEARL 


278 

nothing like the performance which it gives 
at home. It was Fred however who first 
heard the great singer of the day. They were 
in a little gully in the marsh half-filled with 
brush and stumps and tangled masses of long 
grass and sphagnum moss. Suddenly there 
sounded a wild song filled with ringing, 
glassy overtones such as one makes by running 
a moistened finger along the inside of the rim 
of a finger-bowl. The notes of the song 
dashed and tinkled against each other, rising 
at times into a perfect spray of melody with a 
dancing lilt through it all. At last they saw 
the singer, the little winter wren, the fourth 
smallest bird in America. It hardly seemed 
possible that this tiny, inconspicuous bird 
which the boys had often seen bobbing and 
courtesying along the edge of brooks during 
the fall and winter could hold so much 
melody. 

All around them grew amethyst sheets of 
rhodora against a background of the pure 
white petals of the shadblow, while in places 
the marsh was filled with pussy-toes, a vari- 
ety of cotton-grass with what seemed to be a 


MAHMUT 


279 

little soft dab of brown fur at the end of each 
stalk. Suddenly Will fell on his knees in the 
wet moss and when Fred reached him he 
found him kneeling in admiration by a little 
colony of brilliant flowers. Out of the moss 
at the end of bent stems, each with a single lily- 
like leaf, nodded brilliant blossoms. The 
petals of the pouch-like flower were crimson 
with deep purple lines varied with pink and 
shading to yellow. It was Will’s first sight 
of that lovely little bog orchid, the calypso. 
For long both boys bowed before these little 
marsh-dwellers. Then Will told Fred, who 
was the real flower-lover of the two, that all 
the rest of the family of this orchid lived in 
the East Indies. She alone had strayed into 
the North, thousands of miles away from the 
rest of her kin. The last sight that the boys 
had as they turned reluctantly away from these 
marsh-dwellers was the flash of their colors — 
purple, pink and yellow gleaming against the 
setting of the gold-green sphagnum moss. A 
little later Will found another orchid which 
delighted him even more than had the calypso, 
although Fred at first could see nothing inter- 


28 o 


THE BLUE PEARL 


esting or beautiful in it. There was only a 
naked, crooked stem some fifteen inches high 
on which seemed to have alighted a little 
swarm of tiny flies. When Fred looked close 
he saw that what seemed to be insects were 
really the brownish-purple blossoms of that 
rarity, the crane-fly orchis. Will told Fred 
that the insignificant little plant was one of the 
prizes which comes to an orchid-hunter only 
seldom in a lifetime and was perhaps the 
rarest orchid on the North American conti- 
nent except the smaller whorled pogonia with 
its greenish-yellow flowers set in three dusky 
purple sepals. Once this species must have 
been scattered widely over the world, for to- 
day in the Himalayan Mountains, a crane-fly 
orchis is found exactly like the one which 
grows so sparsely on the North American con- 
tinent except for a slight difference in the tip 
of the leaf. 

At last tired and dripping and bitten and 
stung with mosquitoes and black flies but 
happy with the happiness which only orchid- 
hunters and birdnesters know, the two came 


MAHMUT 


281 


back to the rest of the party who were anx- 
iously waiting for them. 

“We ’re huntin’ underground elephants,” 
grumbled Jud, “not dicky birds.” 

Tilgalda stopped Jud’s retort by leading the 
way down the slope by a trail which skirted 
the marsh and stretched directly across the 
low-lying ridges which separated them from 
the shining glacier on the opposite peak. 
When they reached the tip of the glacier the 
walking became more difficult. Down from 
the far heights above, this vast river of ice 
had plowed its way. Nothing could with- 
stand the approach of the almost incalculable 
weight of its moving mass. Vast boulders 
were picked up and carried forward like chips 
on the surface of a stream and the edges of 
flinty granite cliffs sheered off clean. In other 
places the crystal plow-share of the glacier 
had thrust its way deep into vast banks and 
ridges of frozen earth and torn them from the 
bed-rock below, carrying them along irresist- 
ibly and sealing in clear ice rocks, boulders 
and trees which thereafter moved with the ir- 


282 


THE BLUE PEARL 


resistible march of the glacier itself. Along 
its edge Tilgalda led them. Up and up the 
party pressed its way until they came to where 
stark and bare a vast bank of clay and rubble 
had been cut through perhaps a century back. 
As they rounded a bend in the dry bed of what 
had once been a mountain-brook Tilgalda, 
who had been leading the way, stopped with a 
hiss of his indrawn breath and with out- 
stretched arms bowed forward as if in the pres- 
ence of the Great Chief himself. At his 
shoulder was Will, who had chanced to be next 
to him as in single file the party had followed 
the trail. As the boy looked up at the wall 
of transparent ice which towered above them 
a strangled cry of alarm broke from his parted 
lips. There above him frozen in a solid block 
of clear ice towered a monster such as had not 
walked this earth for ten times ten thousand 
years. Unburied from the grave where it 
had rested, untouched by time and intact as 
when some unknown fate had overtaken it 
when the last ice age overwhelmed the earth, 
the monstrous erect body seemed ready to step 
forth out of an age-long sleep. Its vast body, 


MAHMUT 


283 

larger than the largest Indian elephant, stood 
over nine feet high at its fore-shoulder and 
was covered with a thatch of drooping black 
hair which hung two feet long over the huge 
bulk. Underneath this mass of hair showed 
thick, massed, reddish-brown wool. The vast 
curved trunk made it evident that the monster 
was some member of the family of which our 
present-day elephants are all that remain. It 
was the tusks which gave Will the clue to the 
name of the strange monster. They stretched 
out for some six feet and then curved back on 
themselves while the points of each tusk turned 
toward each other and not outward as those of 
an elephant. The boy remembered that on a 
vacation trip to New York he had once seen 
the skeleton of a mammoth which showed 
those same vast back-curved tusks. To-day he 
saw the monster as it looked when it fed 
among the tundras and frozen wastes of the 
far North a hundred and a hundred thousand 
years ago. There was something sinister and 
menacing in the great beast’s appearance. 
The wicked little pig-eyes were set much far- 
ther back than those of an elephant and were 


THE BLUE PEARL 


284 

wide open and seemed to threaten the boy as 
he looked at them. Almost he expected to 
see the huge trunk upraise and to face the 
terrible charge of those curved tusks as when 
the mammoth fought the hairy rhinoceros on 
those northern plains and the saber-toothed 
tiger, the vast cave-bear, and the cave-lion 
watched the fray and the few men of that 
earliest stone age skulked for their very lives. 
There was something unearthly and unnatural 
in the very presence of the giant mammal and 
Will was almost ready to share Tilgalda’s be- 
lief that he who saw to-day what the earth had 
hidden away ages ago must pay a price in 
danger and disaster. One by one the others 
joined him and looked long at the threatening 
monster. The sheet of ice which walled it 
in front, under the summer sun, had melted 
down to a few inches in thickness and was as 
transparent as glass. Although the boys knew 
that there was nothing supernatural about the 
mammoth, yet no one wanted to stay near it 
any longer. Even old Jud, the most practical 
of men, felt the menace of which Tilgalda had 
spoken. 


MAHMUT 


285 

“It kind of seems,” he whispered, “as if it 
were n’t right to see this. Let ’s get out of 
here.” 

As they turned down the path their last 
glimpse of this monster of a forgotten age 
showed its grim figure towering above them as 
if it were guarding its grave against the puny 
presence of latter-day creatures. 

“Now for the bad luck,” remarked Fred 
cheerfully to Tilgalda, as they wound their 
way down the long slope. 

“It come to him,” returned the Indian, 
pointing to Will. “Mahmut looked on him 
first.” 

“How about you?” persisted Fred. 

There was a pause. 

“I ’ve paid,” said Tilgalda at last, pointing 
to the terrible scars on his twisted, distorted 
neck. 

In that high latitude it was light enough to 
read all night long and when the party reached 
the other side of the bog on their homeward 
trip Will begged for another hour to examine 
some of his beloved birds’ nests. This time 
he decided to hunt only for nests, so the bot- 


286 


THE BLUE PEARL 


anist Fred stayed with Jud and Will left them, 
promising to be back within the hour. 

“Look out,” called Fred jokingly, “the 
Mahmut will get you in the marsh.” 

“I ’ll be watching for him,” said Will 
laughingly as he waded into the sphagnum. 

For a time the rest of the party lay on their 
backs on a bank of soft dry reindeer moss. 
Finally they decided to hunt along the upper 
slopes of the hill down which they had come, 
on the chance of running across a deer. Fol- 
lowing the slopes here and there they zig- 
zagged away from the marsh until they 
reached a black canyon hemmed in by huge 
ridges which ran down until they met a 
little stream that went racing through its 
depths. It was deep and dark, with silent 
pools never touched by the rays of the 
sun. Tiptoeing down a winding path they 
followed the canyon which stretched like 
a sword-slash across ridge after ridge. 
Finally far ahead they saw where it opened 
out, apparently at the far end of the 
marsh in which Will was hunting. The wind 
blew in their faces as in single file the party 


MAHMUT 


287 

crept silently along toward the opening where, 
if in any place, they would be likely to find 
game. Turning a sharp corner of the ravine 
they found themselves in a narrow glade full 
of withered grass which widened out to the 
very edge of the marsh. At that moment Til- 
galda held up his hand warningly. Far 
ahead they saw some large animal moving 
through the tawny herbage. So lithe and 
silent and cautious was its every movement 
that it seemed to drift forward like a yellow 
wisp of smoke. Through his field-glasses in 
the dim light Jud made it out to be a moun- 
tain-lion. Once it turned and looked back, but 
they were in the shadow and even the fierce 
pale gooseberry-green eyes did not see them. 
It was evident that the great cat was hunting 
something. At the very end of the glade he 
crouched with every muscle tense, head laid 
between his extended fore-paws while his long 
lithe tail swayed at the very tip with a gentle 
waving motion. It was a far shot in the un- 
certain light but Jud suddenly raised his rifle 
to his shoulder. He knew that once in the bog 
the chances were that the animal would scent 


288 


THE BLUE PEARL 


them as they approached and would disappear 
like a shadow in the long grass. Gradually 
the tail stiffened until only the tip moved back 
and forth. Every muscle of the cougar was 
taut and tense as it crouched lower and lower. 
When the tail stopped moving the spring 
would come. Jud waited until in the waver- 
ing light he had his sight clear and fair just 
above the fore-shoulder, believing that the dis- 
tance would drag the bullet down far enough 
to make the fatal shoulder shot. Just as the 
tail stopped moving he squeezed the trigger. 
The shot and the spring came almost at the 
same instant. Like a tawny streak the great 
beast left the ground just as the whirling, 
pointed, steel-jacketed bullet pierced his fore- 
shoulder and cut directly through its heart. 
There sounded a wailing, snarling shriek fol- 
lowed by a shout for help. 

“That’s Will!” exclaimed Fred, sprinting 
like a race-horse down the canyon, followed 
closely by Joe, while the slower Tilgalda and 
Jud brought up the rear. 

At the edge of the marsh deep in the sphag- 
num moss and a tangle of small bushes they 


MAHMUT 


289 

found Will struggling out from under the 
tawny body of the cougar which was twitching 
in its death-agony. Fred and Joe pulled him 
to his feet. 

“Are you hurt?” panted Fred. 

“I don’t think so,” gasped Will uncertainly, 
feeling himself all over. “What happened 
anyway? I was just looking at another nest 
when something landed on me from behind. 
For a moment I thought the Mahmut had got- 
ten loose.” 

By this time the other two had reached 
them. Jud looked down at the long tawny 
body with the grinning jaws stiffening in 
death and then back at the distance they had 
covered. Then he puffed out his chest. 

“Some shot,” he murmured modestly. 

“Say, Jud,” shouted Will, grasping his 
hand, “I ’ll tell the world it was.” 


CHAPTER XI 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 

A T last came the night when the Argo- 
nauts were again taken by Haidahn to 
the lodge of the Great Chief. All 
that day they had remained fasting in the 
teepee. The bear-claws too had been taken 
from their necks by their original owners. 
Each one whispered as he did so, “I take mine 
to make room for thine.” Once again they 
passed through the jaws of the serpent and 
stood before the Great Chief. At either end 
of the lodge hung swinging braziers in which 
smoldered pine knots which burned with a 
dull red glow. In the center of the lodge 
blazed a fire of driftwood whose flames 
flickered up in sparkles of blue and green. In 
front of the fire on the raised couch covered 
with heaped-up skins sat the Shuman. 
Shrouded in the shadows, the shifting flames 

290 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 291 

now showed, now hid the stern aquiline face, 
the snowy hair and the dark glowing eyes. 
From somewhere in the background came the 
maddening lilt and beat of magic drums. 
The air was heavy with the tingling scent of 
some strange perfume burning in the braziers. 
As the Argonauts stood waiting for they knew 
not what, the fasting, the throb of the drums 
and the slow eddying clouds of incense made 
the blood drum in their temples. Will found 
himself feeling as if all that he had known and 
done were dreams and that now for the first 
time he was about to awake into real life. 
Fred was shaking and trembling all over and 
beads of sweat showed on the faces of even old 
Jud and the impassive Joe. Just when it 
seemed to Fred as if his brain would burst if 
the music kept on and his heart would break 
if it stopped, there came a silence so sudden 
that it was like a blow. It was broken by the 
voice of the Great Chief. The slow, deep 
tones rang like some heavy bell tolling under- 
ground as he intoned what was evidently a 
formula of the initiation. 

“Who would fare to Goreloi, the Island of 


292 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the Bear?” and his voice dropped with a 
crash on the last word. Haidahn, Negouac, 
Tilgalda, Alnitam, Alunak, Saanak, three 
others unknown to the Argonauts and, last of 
all, Will stepped forward. 

“By what token come ye?” boomed the great 
voice again. Each candidate in silence 
stretched forth the claw which he wore. 

“Who vouches for these others?” questioned 
the Chief again as Jud and Joe and Fred were 
pushed forward. 

“I,” said Tilgalda, the bear-hunter, putting 
his hand on Jud’s shoulders. 

“I,” echoed Negouac, his huge arm encir- 
cling Fred, and “I,” shouted Saanak, towering 
above Joe. 

Around the neck of each of them as they 
came the Shuman clasped a claw, repeating 
the same invocation which Will had heard. 
“Be brave, be brave, be brave.” 

Followed a long silence as the party stood 
in a circle around the Shuman, who with 
closed eyes seemed to have forgotten that they 
were there. Again the drums throbbed in the 
darkness and the wavering incense clouds 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 293 

floated up from the braziers. Suddenly the 
silence was broken by Saanak. The tawny 
haired giant had stood motionless with closed 
eyes ever since the claw had been clasped 
around Joe’s neck. Then his great body began 
to quiver and shake. He stepped out of the 
circle until he stood directly before the Shu- 
man, who kept his eyes fixed on the ground. 

“Thou and I, O Great Chief,” he half- 
chanted, “travel soon, far and far into the 
darkness.” Haidahn made as if to stop him 
but Saanak motioned him back. “To-night is 
my night of power,” he went on. 

“He’s fey,” muttered Jud to the awe- 
stricken boys. “I ’ve seen Norse sailors taken 
that way before. Just before they die the 
second sight comes on them.” 

“Oh, ye Free People, to-night thou shalt 
see what never man saw before. Be brave, 
be brave, when that thou face the Eyes of 
Death,” and the strained voice of the over- 
wrought man broke and quavered. Slowly 
the Great Chief rose and threw back the 
mantle with which he had shaded his face. 

“Peace, thou over-burdened one,” he said. 


294 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“Life comes and goes from the dark into the 
dark. It behooves us who wear the Claw to 
show others how to live and if needs be how 
to die,” and with a gesture of his hand toward 
the doorway he signaled that the ceremony 
was over. In single file the party passed out, 
leaving the Shuman alone with Haidahn. 
The silence outside was broken by the irrepres- 
sible Jud. 

“When do we eat?” he said. “I have n’t had 
anything since last week.” 

Negouac, knowing the old man’s appetite, 
grinned and disappeared. In a few moments 
he was back again loaded down with the 
woven baskets of the tribe filled to overflow- 
ing with food. Half an hour later every bas- 
ket was empty. After making sure of this Jud 
wiped his mouth and got up with some dif- 
ficulty. 

“Let ’s go,” he said. 

Led by Negouac the whole party filed down 
to the shore where they found the great war- 
canoe of the tribe waiting for them with the 
Shuman and Haidahn seated in the stern. 
Saanak strode ahead and took his place in 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 295 

the far bow. Negouac and the Argonauts 
crouched down in the middle of the long craft 
while the other six paddled. Across the sky 
half-lighted all night long with the rays of 
the hidden sun a wan half-moon showed like 
a ghost now and then through a drift of clouds 
driven by a wind too high to be felt on earth 
or sea. As the sky darkened a great arc of 
light spanned the western horizon. Then a 
ghostly procession of dull reds, tender greens 
and strange blues unknown to earth flickered 
across the sky in colors of such unearthly 
beauty that even the Indians stopped their 
paddling to look. Again great streamers 
would wave and snap in curtains of color 
athwart the sky as if blown by winds beyond 
the world. Yet neither in nor under the silent 
sky was there a sound. Gradually all the 
colors blended into a great flaming arch which 
spanned and lighted the whole western hori- 
zon. Shimmering waves of different colors 
flashed across the arch until it looked like a 
wavering rainbow of the night. 

“The Lights of the North,” muttered 
Negouac to Jud who sat nearest to him. 


296 THE BLUE PEARL 

“Never before have I seen them show like this 
in summer. They foretell some great happen- 
ing.” 

“Probably they foretell that it ’s goin’ to 
rain/’ returned the practical Jud. 

Shrouded in his heavy mantle the Great 
Chief crouched in the stern with his steering 
paddle and set the course of the canoe toward 
the middle of the flaming arch. In a few 
minutes the Northern Lights dimmed and 
passed until once again there was only sea and 
sky and the pallid gleam of the setting moon. 
In the east the dark clouds massed, hiding the 
light of the unseen sun. Overhead the whole 
sky seemed to be moving and marching. Still 
no breath of air stirred the water. Across 
smooth swells like black satin the great war- 
craft cut its way, driven by the powerful beats 
of the swinging paddles. Then the air be- 
came heavy. The flying clouds seemed to 
hover closer to the sea. All at once the black 
water broke ahead of them into a foam of fire 
and the whole sea seemed to be full of prisoned 
flames while the water dripped from the lifted 
paddles in a spray of lambent fire. Then the 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 297 

air became more tense. Little crackles of 
sound like the rustling of silk or the snapping 
of rubber bands could be heard. The boys 
felt their skins tingling and their hair seemed 
to stiffen and crackle. Suddenly from the 
stern where the muffled figure of the Great 
Chief showed black and motionless a ball of 
fire appeared on the very end of the up-curved 
stern. Without a sound it rolled along the 
gunwale and then with a light swaying move- 
ment leaped through the air and seemed to 
perch and balance on the head of the motion- 
less chief. 

“St. Elmo’s Fire!” muttered Jud. 

“The Corpse Candle!” croaked old Saanak 
from his end. “It lights you and me into the 
dark, O Great Chief, but not yet,” he went on. 
“Last night my fetch spoke to me, and said, 
‘Beware of the sheep of the mountains/ ” and 
Saanak’s voice died away into incoherent mut- 
terings. 

“What does he mean by his ‘fetch’?” 
whispered Fred to Jud. 

“That’s the Norse blood showin’,” re- 
turned the old man. “A ‘fetch’ is a kind of 


THE BLUE PEARL 


298 

guardian spirit. They say it ’s a sign of death 
to see or hear one. I think myself he ’s crazy 
or half-crazy anyhow with his corpse candles 
and fetches and second-sight. No one 
ever — ” Jud’s voice died away in a gasp as the 
fire-ball leaped from the head of the Shuman, 
ran along the row of up-lifted paddles like a 
living thing and landed swaying and flaring 
on the shaggy head of Saanak. As it leaped 
the giant raised his hand as if to ward off a 
blow. Instantly from every finger streamed 
a blue flame. Then tiny fire-balls like will-o’- 
the-wisps showed from every exposed point 
in the boat. The boys’ faces were lighted up 
by fluid fire that seemed to pour like water 
off their heads with a low crackling sound. 
Then as suddenly as it came the flames were 
gone, the tingling and the snapping died away 
and only the phosphorescent water showed 
that some unseen electric storm had been rag- 
ing around the flying craft. Through it all 
not a paddler had skipped a stroke. Wearers 
of the Bear-Claw, all, they scorned to show 
any sign of fear whatever lay before them. 
Gradually the gleaming water dimmed al- 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 299 

though still every ripple from the flashing 
paddles showed a heart of fire. On and on the 
speeding boat moved over the still water. Al- 
though the electric storm had passed there still 
remained a certain feeling as of tense expect- 
ancy. 

“I ain’t no second-sighter,” muttered Jud to 
Negouac, “but you mark my words somethin’s 
goin’ to happen on this voyage.” 

The old chief nodded his head. Even as 
he did so the boat seemed to strike something 
soft and heavy which gave and moved under 
the blow. Instantly there was a light jarring, 
grating sound and for yards and yards around 
the craft the water seemed filled with a mass 
of white writhing snakes. Even as the 
Argonauts and that tested crew looked on 
aghast the grating gnawing sound at the bot- 
tom of the war-craft increased. Suddenly 
there shot into the air vast twisting tentacles 
livid and pale in the half-light. Some of them 
were as thick around as a man’s body. All 
were set thick with sucking discs, some as large 
as a saucer set with hooks curved and sharp 
as the claws of a tiger. Higher and higher 


3 °° 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the fierce streamers towered. Then they bent 
inward while their tips quivered and shot for- 
ward like hunting snakes. Crunchingly the 
discs contracted against the skin sides of the 
bidarka and the sharp claws turned inward, 
piercing the tough hide until every streamer 
was locked and welded against the side, hold- 
ing the boat as if in a vice. Some of the 
tentacles streamed along the out-stretched 
paddles and one twisted around the silent 
figure of the Great Chief himself in the stern. 
Red stains showed through his robe, but before 
even Haidahn could reach him he had drawn 
a keen little axe of tempered copper from his 
belt and with swift fierce blows hacked 
through the tentacle which rested on the gun- 
wale. Then began a battle such as few liv- 
ing men have ever fought. The Argonauts 
gripped their rifles and fired shot after shot 
into the livid net-work which surrounded the 
boat and filled the water on all sides. The 
bullets wasted themselves as if shot into rubber 
and left no mark and in a moment Jud and the 
boys discarded their useless guns and like the 
Indians fought with their light belt-axes. 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 301 

“What is it! What is it!” gasped Fred as 
he hacked desperately at one of the slimy fatal 
tongues that licked out toward him across the 
side of the boat. 

“The ‘Kraken! The Kraken!” shouted 
Saanak from the bow. 

“It’s the Great Squid, the devilfish!” 
panted Jud, “the largest fish in the sea. They 
live on the bottom of the ocean usually. I ’ve 
heard tell of them but thought it was just 
sailors’ yarns. If I ever live through this I ’ll 
believe anything,” and he chopped with all 
his might at a horrid rubbery bulk that writhed 
nearby. 

All around them the sea seemed a mass of 
lashing, livid sea-snakes as more and more ten- 
tacles of the squid thrust themselves toward 
the surface. It was evident that the fight 
with this monster from the unknown depths 
was to the death. Already most of the party 
were bleeding from the tearing touch of the 
armed discs that had pierced their flesh before 
they could sever a clutching tentacle. Hai- 
dahn and Negouac guarded the Great Chief 
who fought for himself that night like the 


302 


THE BLUE PEARL 


great warrior he had been. Saanak worked 
his way down from the bow so as to be closer 
to Joe, calling out words of encouragement and 
strange old Norse battle-cries, with his red 
hair and beard streaming, like one of the Vik- 
ings of old. Back to back Will and Joe 
fought the twining streamers which waved in 
the air above them or tried to tangle their feet 
from beneath. Suddenly a great tentacle 
wound around the middle of Jud’s body even 
as he struck at another which licked at his feet. 
Before he could cut himself loose he was 
dragged to the farther gunwale of the boat. 
At his dreadful cry of despair Fred turned and 
quick as a flash was at his side hacking with 
his belt-axe in one hand and slashing with a 
long keen hunting-knife in the other at the 
twining, sucking band that was drinking the 
old trapper’s very life blood. The boy 
wrought in a perfect frenzy of haste and man- 
aged to sever the fatal belt just in time. As 
the armed discs dropped off his body Jud 
pitched forward on his side faint and sick 
from the loss of blood. 

“I ’m obleeged to you, boy,” he gasped 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 303 

faintly. “This sea-devil is some fast worker 
but — ” his words died away in a gasp of hor- 
ror, while a little involuntary moan ran 
through the groups of fighting men. The 
twisted tentacles nearest the boat had suddenly 
drawn apart and from the depths of the dark 
water appeared a head of such horror as surely 
never living man had looked upon before. 
Larger than the largest hogshead, it was of a 
ghastly white studded with sharp claws like 
those with which the sucking-discs were set. 
In the middle was a vast parrot-like beak 
large enough to engulf a man and which 
gnashed horribly at the sight of its prey. It 
was the hating, horrible eyes, however, which 
were the crowning fearfulness of this Medusa 
head. Lidless, of an inky unfathomable black 
two feet in diameter, wells of hatred, they held 
an expression of malignancy which the eyes of 
no earth-born creature ever even approached. 
The vast demon of the under-sea had come up 
to see what was baffling his serpent-hordes. 
Set on either side of the cylindrical head which 
turned every way on a neck of gristle the vast 
eyes nearly touched at their edges and glared 


THE BLUE PEARL 


3°4 

from one to the other of the men in front of 
them with a gaze of fearful intelligence. Not 
a man even of that tested crew could bear un- 
moved their gaze. 

“The Eyes of Death! The Eyes of Death!” 
shouted Saanak again. 

Then in the half-light the wasted figure 
of the Great Chief stepped forth and stood 
stark and tall among his cowering followers. 
Beyond the broken water and the writhing 
tentacles he had caught a glimpse of a vast 
dark mass that seemed to be nearing the boat 
rapidly. Then for an instant the steady eyes 
of the man looked into the terrible eyes of the 
devilfish. A current of courage seemed to 
pass from that undaunted figure to every mem- 
ber of the band. Suddenly the silence was 
broken by the Shuman’s mighty voice. 

“Back to thy darkness, O Demon of the 
Sea,” it thundered, “even now thy fate over- 
takes thee.” 

As he spoke the streamers of livid flesh 
writhed away from the boat and shot over the 
side. The malignant intelligence back of the 
fierce eyes had realized that it was the men 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 305 

and not the boat upon whom the attack must 
be made. Against them the great tentacles 
concentrated. It seemed impossible that all 
of the party could escape from the living net 
of twining serpents that moved forward to en- 
mesh the shrinking bodies in the water. 
Nearer and nearer to the canoe the great head 
itself moved until the ghastly beak gnashed 
and lipped at the very gunwale. One death- 
pale streamer shot up from the sea toward the 
Shuman as he stood erect and motionless look- 
ing out over the water. The air was heavy 
with the scent of stale musk. The fatal eyes 
came nearer and nearer. Not only the tips of 
the tentacles were in the boat but the thick 
trunks themselves, until the men seemed stand- 
ing in a mass of livid coils which only needed 
to tighten to drag them down into the dark 
water. Suddenly so close that the boat was al- 
most swamped a vast jaw shot up out of the 
water studded with sharp enormous teeth. 
The sea boiled, and up and up, forcing its way 
through the expanse of twisting coils, came the 
head of a monster whale which alone was al- 
most the size of the bidarka. 


THE BLUE PEARL 


306 

“Cachelot! Cachelot!” almost sobbed Jud. 
“He feeds on them sea-devils.” 

Almost beside the boat right in the faces of 
the astounded crew gaped the vast cavern of 
the sperm-whale’s jaw. He alone, the un- 
afraid king of the sea, fears nothing that swims 
or floats or crawls in or on the water of the 
unknown sea-floor below. On the devilfish, 
the great squid of the unknown reaches of the 
ocean, the insatiable nightmares of the sea, the 
cachelot feeds. They alone are large enough 
to satisfy the vast appetite of these whales, 
among the hugest mammals now living. So 
close to the boat were the great jaws that the 
enormous, conical, sharp-pointed teeth could 
be plainly seen. They were several inches 
apart, fitted into sockets in the opposite jaw in- 
stead of meeting opposing teeth as in the case 
of the orca. The cachelot’s enormous head 
was shaped above like a rounded box and was 
nearly a third of its entire length, which Jud 
afterwards estimated at well over sixty feet. 
From its single blow-hole it spouted vapor in 
a small bushy spout. With a sweep of its 
great flukes and a twist of its small flippers the 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 307 

black head surged through the tangle of ten- 
tacles toward that other livid and awful head 
that was peering over the edge of the boat. 
The malevolent eyes recognized instantly the 
presence of the one sea-dweller which the 
great squid fears. Instantly the foaming 
water was blackened by jets of the sepia which 
all squids discharge to mask their retreat when 
fleeing. With a movement quick as the snap 
of a whip every tentacle, including those 
which had been mutilated by the axes and 
knives of the crew, were drawn back upon 
themselves. Instantly the vast cephalopod 
hurled itself forward through the sea by shoot- 
ing a jet of water out of a hole in its grisly 
neck. In a second it was fifty yards away 
from the boat. Swift as its movement had 
been it was too late. The cachelot is among 
the very fleetest of all the whales. Swerving 
its enormous body with a plunge that nearly 
engulfed the bidarka the giant mammal rushed 
like an avalanche through the inky musk- 
scented water. In an instant the enormous 
jaws had gripped the body of the retreating 
squid. Immediately the black block-shaped 


THE BLUE PEARL 


308 

head of the whale was enveloped in a smother 
of tearing, rending, sucking tentacles while the 
great hooked beak gnashed in vain against the 
tons of fanged bone and blubber that sawed 
their way steadily through the tangle of twin- 
ing tentacles. As they writhed and locked in 
a great straining white mass it seemed as if 
the whale would be smothered and strangled. 
No created creature could apparently with- 
stand the tremendous pressure of the twining 
cables of horn-bound muscle. From the frail 
craft the little party watched the contest at 
first in silence. When it seemed as if the 
cachelot might still be worsted old Jud could 
stand the strain no longer. 

“Go it, whale I” he piped, hopping up and 
down on one leg in his excitement. “My 
money ’s on you! Bite him! Chew him up! 
Don’t let him get no strangle-hold on you!” 

The cachelot seemed to need no encourage- 
ment nor to have any misgivings. In spite of 
the locking coils the great jaws opened and 
closed and sawed their way through tentacle 
after tentacle in a most workmanlike manner, 
until they were able to grip the body of the 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 309 

squid at its center. Then occurred a fearsome 
thing. From out of the hooked beak sounded 
an unearthly voice. At first it growled and 
moaned in a tone half-animal, half-human. 
Then as the fanged jaws of the cachelot pierced 
deeper through the tough fibers it rose to a 
raving shriek of madness and fury indescrib- 
ably horrible. Slowly the cachelot’s teeth 
pierced to the very heart of the tough, gelat- 
inous mass. The crew had one last glimpse 
of terrible eyes flashing from out a corpse- 
white face. Then with a crash of its flukes 
the great whale sounded and dived down 
to finish his titanic meal in the depths below. 
For a moment no one spoke. The whole scene 
had been like a nightmare. Only floating 
fragments and slabs of white sections of the 
tentacles were left to prove the reality of what 
they had seen. The Shuman gave the signal 
to proceed and again the steady beat of the 
paddles sounded as the long bidarka shot for- 
ward. No one of the party but bore the marks 
of the battle and the gashes which told of the 
touch of the fatal sucking discs of the tentacles. 

There was not a sound except the splash of 


3 ID 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the paddles. After this life and death battle 
a reaction set in and no one spoke or wished 
to speak. The long, lean craft sped over the 
sea under the rhythmical beat of the paddles. 
As the sun showed above the horizon all 
around was sea and sky. Nowhere was there 
any sight of land or visible marks or ranges by 
which to steer their course. Yet without com- 
pass the Shuman in the stern steered uner- 
ringly toward the distant horizon. At last far 
away where the sky’s rim touched the sea, 
showed what seemed to be a bank of fleecy 
clouds. As they came nearer the white mass 
towered higher and higher like a huge castle 
with turrets and battlements of fleecy cloud 
and floating mist. Straight toward this white 
bulk the bidarka drove and as the bank grew 
higher and higher above the horizon the Ar- 
gonauts suddenly realized that they were look- 
ing upon land shrouded in clouds and mist. 
A murmur went all around the boat. 

“Goreloi! Goreloi!” the whisper ran, and 
the faces of the weary crew brightened as if 
lighted by the rising sun. To them it was 
one of the Fortunate Islands where for blessed 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 31 1 

days and weeks they would taste strange, un- 
known delights. As they came nearer and 
nearer the outlines of the whole island were 
visible. It had a mean width of some twenty- 
five miles. Set in the middle of chill and 
frozen seas there seemed to be no reason for 
the mass of clouds and mist which hid its ex- 
panse nor for the glimpses of radiant green 
which showed here and there. 

The sun was well up in the sky as the long 
war-craft reached the rim of Goreloi. As far 
as eye could see great buttresses and black 
basalt cliffs a hundred feet high guarded the 
whole island coast. At their base were massed 
tangles of fanged reefs and rocks against which 
the surf broke and boomed. Old Jud viewed 
this menacing coast with alarm. 

“That ’s a shore which it ’ll be healthy to lay 
off from,” he announced decidedly as he 
looked in vain for any sign of a landing beach. 
“No boat that was ever built would ever have 
a chance in that surf among those rocks.” 

Haidahn smiled quietly as he caught the old 
whaler’s words. 

“We land all right,” he said. 


3 12 


THE BLUE PEARL 


“You ’ll have to do it from an airship then,” 
returned Jud as the bidarka began to circle 
the coast, keeping well beyond the foaming 
stretches of white water where the surf began. 
For an hour the light craft held its course 
around the island and still there appeared no 
break in the rock-bound rim. At last they 
came to a point where the character of the 
rocks changed. The cliffs still towered over- 
head as high and as inaccessible as before. 
Instead of showing black against the white- 
capped breakers, what seemed to be a chalk 
formation like the Channel cliffs of England, 
showed above the foaming, tossing water be- 
low. The sound of the breakers too seemed 
to change and they broke with an echoing 
boom as if the crags were hollow instead of the 
crash with which they struck the solid basalt. 
Close to where the black and white rocks 
joined the Shuman signalled for the paddlers 
to stop. There for over an hour the bidarka 
held its place under the signalled instructions 
of the steersman. Keeping it well back from 
the line of breakers he was evidently waiting 
for the tide to turn. Little by little the base 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 313 

of the cliffs showed more and more above the 
water as the ebb set in. At last the whole side 
of the white crag showed before them and just 
at the slack of the ebb-tide, the white-topped 
breakers died down to a series of great smooth 
rollers which lipped and lapped at the rocks 
in strange contrast to their roaring, crashing 
fury a few hours before. At the lowest of the 
ebb, among the line of out-lying rocks ap- 
peared a stretch of smooth water, which 
seemed to wind its way to the very face of the 
cliff. At a sign from the Shuman the beat of 
the paddlers began again and the long boat 
zigzagged its way through the rocks until the 
white crag towered directly over its crew. As 
they came close to the cliff Jud gave a grunt. 

“That Shuman is a wise old bird,” he whis- 
pered to Will. “So long as he can’t go up the 
cliff he ’s goin’ through it.” 

Even as he spoke the boys caught a glimpse 
of a low cave which showed in the face of the 
diff as the lapping water drew back. Follow- 
ing the example of the rest of the party, as 
for an instant the Shuman held the boat poised 
at the edge of the opening, Jud and the boys 


3H 


THE BLUE PEARL 


lay down flat on their faces. As a huge swell 
moved with a sucking, gurgling sound back- 
ward from the cliff at a sharp word from the 
steersman the stern paddlers drove the craft 
on with one last stroke and pitched forward 
on their faces. The Shuman steered the bi- 
darka until his end reached the edge of the 
cave, when he too lay down at full length in the 
bottom of the boat. Inside the opening the 
low roof was just high enough to allow the low 
craft passage. In places the up-curved ends 
touched the rock. Without raising their 
heads above the sides the paddlers managed 
to force the boat on its way. In a few mo- 
ments in the utter dark a spot of light appeared 
far ahead which widened and brightened un- 
til all in a moment the bidarka shot forth into 
a little cliff-locked cove which sloped up to a 
white chalk beach. In a moment the bow 
grounded, the crew sprang ashore and with a 
rush and a heave carried the vessel far up over 
the white shingle until it was safely beached 
and hidden in a cleft in the rocks. 

Around a spring which bubbled clear and 
cold up from the chalk the party gathered for 


THE NIGHTMARE OF THE SEA 315 

the first meal which they had shared since 
leaving Akotan. As always, the Great Chief 
sat a little apart. Beyond them the narrow 
cleft in the rocks which had ended in the cave 
opened out in front of them until it showed 
as a narrow canyon hemmed in on either side 
with rugged cliffs which stretched away to- 
ward the west as far as they could see. Fire 
and frost and water untold ages ago had 
burned and cut and worn this great cave 
through the living rock. Along the center of 
this dark valley ran a stream with a rough 
trail twisting along its bank. In perfect si- 
lence the party ate and drank. None of the 
Indians spoke and for some reason not even 
Fred had anything to say. The life at Ako- 
tan, the flight across haunted seas, the dark 
prophecies of Saanak and that nightmare 
battle with the haunter-of-the-depths seemed 
like a far-away dream. In the silent valley 
there was not a sound, no bird-note nor even 
the noise of the waves without. The meal fin- 
ished, Saanak did a strange thing. As usual 
he had kept close to Joe. Now reaching into 
the front of his parka lined with eiderdown 


THE BLUE PEARL 


316 

and curiously wrought and embroidered with 
rare and beautiful feathers, he drew out a 
knife. Its steel handle was set in soft lustrous 
amber curiously chased and inlaid with gold 
while the blade was of dull gray steel deep cut 
with runes where it joined the haft. The 
keen edge showed by a thousand wavy lines 
how carefully it had been forged and tem- 
pered by some long-forgotten smith in the days 
when a man’s life often depended upon the 
worth of his weapon. It was sheathed in a 
solid block of narwhale ivory. Saanak looked 
long and lovingly at the weapon. Suddenly 
he forced it into Joe’s hands. 

“It came from a great chief and a far-away 
land,” he said. “Wear it to remember the 
whale-killer.” 

Nor could Joe persuade him to take back 
his gift. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE BLUE PEARL 

T HE canyon widened as they pressed 
further into its depths and its sides 
were more broken and less sheer. In 
single file they marched, led by the Great 
Chief, who for all his age walked with as 
swift and sure a pace as any of his band. Be- 
hind him, at a respectful distance, came 
Haidahn and Negouac, who carried the 
weapons of their leader, his bow and 
quiver and the fierce bear-spear with its 
double-edged head of tempered copper a good 
yard long fixed with a cross-bar at the end of 
a six-foot handle. With this very weapon in 
his youth the Shuman had killed bears single- 
handed in battles which were still traditions of 
his tribe. As they marched, the brook rushed 
down to meet them, babbling, tinkling, talk- 
ing, changing its tones every moment but never 
317 


3 i 8 THE BLUE PEARL 

for an instant silent. In the middle of the 
trail stood a huge boulder like some squat 
stone cabin. Beyond this the stream ran 
through a long stretch of pure white sand. As 
they reached the great rock, the air was sud- 
denly filled with ringing, chiming notes. 

“Sounds like church-bells, underground,” 
whispered Fred. Up from the surface of the 
water seemed to throb tiny bell-tones which 
all blended together in one chiming rush of 
sound that was indescribably beautiful. The 
whole party stopped for a moment as wave 
after wave of the music floated towards them 
as if borne on by the brook itself. 

“The Singing Sands,” murmured Haidahn 
to Jud. 

The Shuman stood and with folded arms 
gazed fixedly into the rushing water as if lis- 
tening to voices unheard by others. 

“It is a place of magic,” Haidahn went on. 
“No man may cross or stand on these sands 
lest the spirit of the place drag him down. It 
is here that the medicine-men of old-time 
would come,” he continued, lowering his voice 
as he looked toward the motionless chief. 


THE BLUE PEARL 319 

'‘Fasting and in silence they would wait on the 
top of that great stone and listen to the voices 
of the brook until a message came to them.” 

For long the band waited while the Great 
Chief brooded in silence and the air pulsed 
with the lilting fairy music. At last he started 
up as one who suddenly awakes and again the 
march began. As the bell-notes became 
fainter and at last died away behind a bend in 
the stream Will whispered to Fred and Joe 
that there were three other singing sands 
known. All of them were quicksands, that is 
sand which although it looks solid is really 
floating in water. In them all the sand was 
made of grains of pure quartz so smooth that 
each particle was a little flake of polished 
glass. Driven together by the movement of 
the water, each grain would give out a tiny 
tinkle of sound which multiplied by a million 
swelled into the bell-notes they had heard. 

“That kind of talk may be all right,” ob- 
jected Fred when Will had finished his lec- 
ture, “but it ’s too complicated for me. I ’m 
going to believe with Haidahn that it ’s magic. 
Is n’t that right, Joe?” 


320 


THE BLUE PEARL 


The Indian’s answer was lost in a crash 
from the cliff above. Bounding from ledge to 
ledge came a huge boulder. Before one of 
the party could move the rock was upon them 
and whizzed like a cannon-ball directly to- 
wards the Great Chief. Just as it seemed as 
if it must crush the life out of him, it struck 
a little point of rock that jutted up from the 
base of the cliff and rose in the air, clearing 
the Shuman’s head by a scant foot and disap- 
pearing in the stream with a splash that threw 
water over them all. The silence that fol- 
lowed was broken by Saanak. 

“The sheep, the sheep of the mountain!” he 
shouted. Following his gaze they all saw the 
head of a big-horn, as the trappers call the 
mountain-sheep, looking down at them. Its 
broad twisted horns, black muzzle and white 
face seemed to lean out into sheer space as it 
stared down fixedly at them, strangely long 
for so wary an animal. 

For a moment no one moved. Then the 
Great Chief started on again as erect and com- 
posed as if he had not just stared death in the 
face. 


THE BLUE PEARL 321 

“My fetch has spoken — and is gone,” said 
Saanak again. “I follow soon,” and he hur- 
ried after the Shuman. As the trail turned 
away from the cliff the whole party looked up 
at the rocks above, but the big-horn was gone. 
For a time they followed the windings of the 
stream along the middle of the little valley. 
Then once again their path skirted the cliff- 
side. Saanak passed Negouac and Haidahn 
and did not stop until he was next to the 
Shuman himself. 

“I go, O Chief,” he said in his singing mono- 
tone, “but thou followest close. Farewell!” 

As the Shuman turned to answer, Saanak 
stretched out his right arm, ribbed and gnarled 
with vast knotted muscles. Following his 
gesture the band saw once more on a shelf of 
rock the head of the mountain-sheep peering 
down at them. There was something so sin- 
ister and threatening in its fixed gaze that old 
Jud gripped his rifle. Before he could un- 
sling it from his shoulder there was a long- 
drawn hissing sound through the air and a 
barbed arrow pierced the broad chest of Sa- 
anak so deeply that its very feathers were wet 


322 THE BLUE PEARL 

with his blood. Dead before he reached the 
ground, the giant pitched forward with a 
strangled cry which was echoed by a shriek 
from above. A tawny streak had shot down 
from an upper ledge and even as Saanak fell, 
a mountain-lion landed directly on the back 
of the big-horn. The great sheep seemed to 
crumple beneath its weight and the next sec- 
ond both animals whirled over the precipice 
to land in a tangled mass not two yards away 
from the body of Saanak. A bullet from Jud’s 
rifle put the big cat out of pain as it writhed 
with a broken back. The big-horn lay where 
it had fallen without a movement. It was 
the Shuman himself who first examined its 
strangely flattened body. Reaching down he 
raised one of the arching horns and, as he did 
so, apparently lifted the whole carcass off the 
ground. A murmur of surprise broke from 
the band. What the Great Chief held in his 
hand was only the dry tanned skin of a moun- 
tain-sheep with the head and horns attached. 
Underneath lay the dead body of a man, his 
legs chalked white to imitate the coloring of a 
big-horn and his fingers still wound around a 


THE BLUE PEARL 


3 2 3 

short powerful bow of osage orange. Even 
in death the snaky black eyes of the dead man 
seemed to contain fathomless depths of cruelty 
and malignancy, while the copper-colored face 
showed the same fierce profile that appears on 
old Assyrian coins and carvings. As the In- 
dians glimpsed the deadly face a murmur of 
“Kenaitze, Kenaitze,” went around the circle 
and every man unconsciously felt for his 
weapon. Haidahn hurriedly explained to the 
Argonauts that those of his tribe who came to 
Goreloi often had to fight for their lives with 
this fierce, implacable race who had come to 
the island from no one knew where. Like 
the Free People they had probably found some 
secret entrance. Away from the central valley 
they lived hidden in that lone land, an outlaw 
clan recognizing no laws, keeping no faith 
and speaking no language known to other 
tribes. Haidahn was convinced that this 
lurker among the crags was not a part of any 
war-party but only a solitary hunter after 
mountain-sheep. His disguise had been so 
fatally perfect that he had been taken for a 
big-horn and trailed to his death by a moun- 


324 


THE BLUE PEARL 


tain-lion even while he was making his own 
kill. In the dim light of the canyon the little 
party gathered around the lifeless body of 
their companion. 

“Forthseeing and with strange blood in his 
veins, yet he never flinched nor faltered even 
when he knew of his own doom,” said Hai- 
dahn in a low voice. “He was a true com- 
rade and a brave man.” 

Then at a muttered command from the 
Shuman he directed the digging of two shal- 
low graves in the soft sand at the foot of the 
cliff. There in the twilight of the shadowed 
canyon guarded by everlasting gates of living 
rock, with the singing brook at his side and 
the Bear Claw on his breast they buried Sa- 
anak, the Whalekiller, with his foeman at his 
feet. 

It was a sombre and silent party that con- 
tinued the journey. With weapons in their 
hands prepared to fight for their lives at a 
moment’s notice, they followed the winding 
trail while Alunak and Anitam went ahead as 
scouts. As the day wore on there was no 
further sign of the Kenaitze and the canyon 


THE BLUE PEARL 


325 

widened out into a broad valley flanked by 
mountain ranges. Once out again in broad 
daylight and freed from the haunting sense of 
danger the spirits of the whole band rose. 
Jud especially tried to cheer up Will and Fred 
who had been sobered and saddened by their 
first experience with sudden death. 

“We Ve all got to go sometime,” he said. 
“The great thing is to quit ourselves like men 
while we live,” which was as near to preach- 
ing as Jud ever came. Then the old man be- 
gan a long discourse on the mountain-lion. 
He told the boys that it was the same animal 
as the cougar and the panther and was the most 
widely distributed of all the American cats, be- 
ing found as far south as the Argentine. 

“It’s the same beast that our great-great- 
grand-dads used to call a ‘painter’ before the 
Revolution, and be more scared of than they 
were of the wolf and the bear, although it ’s 
about as harmless as a lynx,” went on the old 
man. 

“Harmless, hey,” objected Will. “How 
about that one which jumped me, back in 
the bog?” 


THE BLUE PEARL 


326 

“Well,” returned Jud, “when he saw you 
pickin’ flowers and huntin’ birds’ nests in a bog 
he thought you were wrong in your head. 
He ’d never have taken that chance with any- 
body else. Another thing about the mountain- 
lion,” hurried on Jud before Will could think 
of any retort, “it ’s the best eatin’ of any ani- 
mal except perhaps a young an’ tender wolf.” 

“Say, Jud,” broke in Fred who had been an 
interested listener, “you can have my share of 
both.” 

By this time they had reached the end of the 
valley. Before them towered a curved wall 
of jagged rocks. Past this the Shuman led 
the party on by a little path which wound 
between boulders and zigzagged along preci- 
pices until suddenly it seemed to end at a rim 
of rock. There before the astonished eyes of 
the Argonauts, lighted up by the rays of the 
setting sun, lay what seemed a fairyland. Be- 
fore them as far as they could see was a circle 
of green trees and grass and flowers ringed 
around by dark cliffs. It was like that little 
oasis set in a wilderness of ice and snow along 
the west coast of northern Greenland between 


THE BLUE PEARL 


327 


Kane Basin and Melville Bay where a 
warm current touches the frozen coast. This 
valley however seemed to have been the 
crater of a vast extinct volcano. All that was 
left of the fire and fury of by-gone ages were 
hot springs which bubbled and steamed every- 
where and which gave forth a heat which as 
on Half Way Island raised the temperature 
many degrees above what it was outside the 
crater. As they pressed forward the soft 
grass came to their knees and the hot fragrant 
air was like a breath from the tropics. Be- 
yond the grass was a grove of trees hung heavy 
with fruit. At the sight Jud broke into a run. 

“Apples!” he yelled. “To think that I 
should be eatin’ red apples beyond the Arctic 
Circle!” he mumbled a few minutes later with 
his mouth full. “It beats singin’ sands an’ 
underground elephants.” 

At a signal from the Great Chief the whole 
party separated to revel in the many delights 
to which they had looked forward for so many 
weary months. No guard was kept, since by 
reason of some saving superstition none of the 
Konaitzes ever ventured to set foot within the 


THE BLUE PEARL 


328 

crater itself. Jud and the boys enjoyed them- 
selves with the others. There was bathing in 
warm deep pools lined with white and yellow 
sand, and wonderful trout-fishing in a little 
river of ice-cold water which wound its way 
uncooled among boiling hot springs. Will 
and Fred found flowers which belonged right- 
fully a thousand miles south and birds such as 
the bronzed humming-bird and the beautiful 
nonpareil finch which must have covered hun- 
dreds of leagues of half-thawed land and ice 
to enjoy that northern oasis. To the Eskimos 
and northern Indians, who knew nothing of 
warmer sunlit lands, Goreloi was like Eden 
itself. 

It was the third day of their stay in Goreloi 
when the Great Chief beckoned the Argonauts 
and Haidahn and Negouac to his side. 

“To-day,” he said “we seek the Blue Pearl.” 

After a few brief instructions by Haidahn 
to the rest of the band the seven started on the 
quest. Their path led away from the hot 
springs across the grassy plain and toward far 
cliff -walls which showed dimly in the distance. 
Here and there through the waving grass they 


THE BLUE PEARL 


329 

crossed packed and trodden bear-paths fully 
a couple of yards broad. At the first of these 
Jud stopped and studied the trail with a 
puzzled expression. 

“The bear that made that road,” he said at 
last, “must have been about the size of a small 
elephant. I never saw such a track in my 
lifeU 

No one answered him and with a shake of 
his head he followed the Great Chief who 
pressed forward turning neither to the right 
nor to the left. On they went through the 
warm, moist air, waist-deep in grass and 
flowers, until they reached the distant cliff- 
face. In its side grim and black showed the 
entrance of a great cave. Fifty feet above the 
white sand floor a vaulted rock-roof stretched 
away until its outlines were lost in the darkness. 
Down through the very middle of the cavern 
flowed a bright blue stream, which wound its 
way along the edge of the cliff and dis- 
appeared in the lush grass. Not even Will, 
the scientist, would hazard a guess as to what 
mineral had given this color to the water. 
Joe told them that this was not the place where 


330 


THE BLUE PEARL 


the first blue pearl had been found but that the 
water was of the same color. Then, while the 
Great Chief sat himself down in the entrance 
to the cave, began a pearl-hunt led by Joe and 
Will who claimed to be expert pearlers on the 
strength of the famous pink pearl which Will 
found, “Scar” Dawson stole, Joe recovered 
and Jim Donegan bought. At first the In- 
dians sat as spectators while the Argonauts 
poked through wet gravel and dabbled in the 
blue water after fresh-water mussels. It was 
Fred who made the first find. Opening with 
his trusty jack-knife a large unio, as the pearl- 
bearing mussels are called, he discovered in 
the mantle or lining of the inner shell, an ir- 
regularly shaped, white pearl as large as a pea. 
The sight of this treasure-trove was too much 
for the two chiefs. Piling up their weapons on 
the bank where the Argonauts had left theirs 
Haidahn and Negouac joined the others. Up 
and down the banks and bed of the blue brook 
they dug and dabbled and splashed, while in 
the shadow of the cliff the Great Chief leaned 
on his spear and watched them. Perhaps his 
mind ran back to the far-away days of his own 


THE BLUE PEARL 


33i 


youth when he too had traveled far and suf- 
fered much in the seeking and winning of 
treasure. Farther and farther down the 
stream the treasure-hunters splashed their 
way. For once even the vigilance of the 
watchful Haidahn and the wariness of old 
Jud were relaxed under the spell of treasure- 
hunting. Not otherwise would they have left 
the old chief alone nor have gone weaponless 
even for a moment in a strange country. As 
for the Great Chief himself, perhaps like 
Saanak he already knew his fate and future 
and that it could not be averted, for he did not 
call them back nor warn them to be on their 
guard but sat in the shadow staring half sadly 
out over the flower-fields and the blue water. 

Then there came from the dark of the 
cavern behind him a roaring, unearthly growl 
so deep that it clanged and echoed through the 
cave like the closing of iron gates far under- 
ground. At the sound the treasure-seekers, 
who were then well down the brook, splashed 
out of the shallows to the bank and ran for the 
life of their leader to where their rifles had 
been left. It was too late. Out into the full 


332 


THE BLUE PEARL 


sunlight towered such a bear as none of them, 
save Joe, had believed could be found on earth 
to-day; the great brown bear of the farthest 
Northwest that rivals the giant cave-bear 
which was the terror of mankind in the Old 
Stone Age a hundred thousand of years ago. 
It had the concave face of the grizzly rather 
than the convex face of the polar bear and 
was of a dusky brown in color, silvered with 
gray at the shoulders. It was its size, how- 
ever, that was its most terrifying feature. 
As it approached the old chief it reared up 
on its hind legs until it towered a good 
twelve feet in the air, the largest carnivo- 
rous animal in the world to-day. Joe and 
Fred ran as they had never run in any race, 
hoping against hope that they might reach the 
rifles in time. Close behind them was old 
Haidahn who in spite of his age had passed 
Negouac and Jud and even Will. Swift as 
they were the great bear was swifter. Tower- 
ing like a dark shadow of death he moved for- 
ward upon the Great Chief without a sound 
after the first growl which had signaled his 
approach. For an instant the man faced the 


THE BLUE PEARL 


333 


beast. For the Shuman there was no escape, 
since no man can keep ahead of a bear, even 
one as vast as this one. Nor had the old chief 
any thought of flight. As he stood up for his 
last fight with such a monster as man must have 
battled with often in the days when the beast- 
folk ruled the world, he seemed to put off his 
years like a garment. Like an old lion he 
threw back his head with its tossing mane of 
white hair. His spare figure straightened and 
gripping his spear with both hands he awaited 
the charge of the bear. Memories of forgot- 
ten, faraway fights may have surged back to 
his mind as he stood there in the sunlight with 
the grim brute in front of him while the beat 
of the runners’ feet and the panting intake of 
their breath sounded nearer and nearer from 
behind. 

“Come then, O Bear,” he shouted as he had 
shouted in his youth in the formula of the 
bear-hunters. “Come and see which is the 
stronger. I too have a keen claw and it waits 
for thee. Come — ” the rest of the invocation 
was drowned in the roaring cough that a bear 
gives as he charges. The old chief braced one 


334 


THE BLUE PEARL 


foot against a point of rock and waited. Then 
the long spear-head feinted toward the rush- 
ing bulk now not six feet away. Like a gigan- 
tic boxer the bear struck down at the blade but 
the blow met only the empty air. Then sud- 
den as the fangs of a striking snake the spear 
shot forward and the keen three-foot point 
buried itself just below the mighty fore-paw. 
With a roar the great animal rushed forward. 
The long handle of the spear bent and 
quivered but the old chief, braced against the 
rock, held it firm until the rush of the bear 
drove the point deep into its huge chest. Not 
until the towering figure surged against the 
very cross-bar with the spear-point through its 
heart did the chief seek his own safety. Then 
with the mortally wounded beast almost upon 
him, he tried to avoid its death-blow by leap- 
ing to one side as he had done so often in his 
glorious youth. Alas, the speed and the 
strength of long-ago had passed with the years. 
He sprang away from the spear, but not quick 
enough nor far enough to escape entirely the 
last smashing stroke of the dying bear. It 
hurled him against the rocks with a crash that 


THE BLUE PEARL 


335 


seemed to break every bone in his wasted body. 
For a moment he tried vainly to rise, only to 
find himself paralyzed from his waist down- 
wards and with evidently only a few moments 
of life left to him. 

“Vex not thyselves,” he said to Haidahn and 
Negouac as they knelt down beside him in 
a frenzy of remorse at having left him. 
“Saanak spoke truly. I follow him close nor 
could I have chosen a better way to go. 
Wrap me in the skin of that bear than which 
no man of my tribe ever slew a greater and 
bury me here in Goreloi which I found in the 
days of my youth and have given to my peo- 
ple.” 

The old man’s voice stopped for a long time. 
When next he spoke it was so softly that it was 
hard to catch all the words. 

“Danger, sorrow and death is always the 
price of the Blue Pearl,” he said very low, the 
very words which Joe had quoted when the 
quest was first proposed. 

“Come close to me, O thou last of my 
blood,” he whispered to Joe. As the boy 
knelt beside him the old chief unfastened from 


THE BLUE PEARL 


336 

his neck a little bag made of soft leather and 
fastened with a curious interwoven knot. 
This he thrust into Joe’s hands. “I give to 
thee and thy friends the Pearl which thou and 
they sought,” he said. “Hold me fast as I go 
into the dark.” 

A few moments later with Joe’s strong 
young arms about him and with Haidahn and 
Negouac clinging to his robe, as if they would 
keep him with them, the undaunted soul of 
the Great Chief passed to the reward that 
awaits those who with no thought of self, have 
fought and wrought for others. 


The last of the two trains which stopped at 
Cornwall almost every day except of course 
on Sundays and holidays had come and gone. 
In the big library of the big house of big Jim 
Donegan, the biggest lumber-king in all this 
big world sat alone. He was smoking an 
aged corn-cob pipe of unsurpassed range and 
windage. This was a sign that the old man’s 
mind was troubled. Whenever that hap- 
pened he always harped back to this particular 


THE BLUE PEARL 


337 

pipe. It was of about the vintage of the Cen- 
tennial and no one could smoke it and think of 
anything else. Two puffs would be fatal to 
an uneducated smoker but had only a sooth- 
ing effect on Big Jim. To-night he certainly 
needed soothing. There had been a stormy 
interview with Will’s father, a tearful one 
with Fred’s mother and an embarrassing one 
with Joe’s uncle. 

“They all seem to think that I ’ve kidnapped 
their blamed boys and sold them up in that 
well-known slave state of Alaska,” grumbled 
the old man to himself. “I wonder why the 
mischief I don’t get any word from Nord,” he 
broke out again a moment later. “The more 
salary I pay a man the more he does as he 
blame pleases,” and Big Jim puffed out clouds 
of raw acrid smoke until the air smelt like a 
gas-attack. At that very psychological, criti- 
cal, selected moment the door-bell rang. 
Furthermore it kept on ringing. Even from 
the sequestered depths of his library the old 
man could hear its insistent, irritating, buzz- 
ing rattle. Followed the steps of his well- 


THE BLUE PEARL 


338 

trained butler buttling down the hall on high. 
The next thing Jim heard was a beseeching 
bleat from said butler. 

“Indeed, sirs, you mustn’t go up without 
being announced,” he insisted in the rich 
throaty British tone which made him so valu- 
able. 

“We ’ll do the announcin’,” shrilled a high- 
pitched voice. Followed a sound on the stair- 
case like a herd of stampeding elephants. 

“What the — ” had begun Big Jim when the 
door flew open and in dashed four disrep- 
utable, dangerous-looking characters, with 
James the butler vainly trying to hold them 
back. They were armed with repeating rifles. 
At their belts they wore hunting-knives and 
axes. They were brown and burned and 
swarthy from sun and wind. All of them 
wore feather-lined parkas and tarbosars which 
came to their hips and were soled with sea-lion 
flippers. One of them carried the priceless 
pelt of a sea-otter. Another one staggered 
under the horns and tanned hide of a big-horn 
sheep. A third had a Viking dagger at his 
belt. Each of them wore suspended around 


THE BLUE PEARL 


339 

their necks a keen, curved, enormous bear 
claw. With one accord they sprang upon the 
lumber-king who was entirely unarmed saved 
for the aforesaid pipe, no mean weapon. To 
the terrified butler what happened next looked 
like a combination of riot, rough-house and as- 
sault and battery with intent to kill. Really it 
was only an attempt on the part of Big Jim 
Donegan to simultaneously hug and pat on the 
back each one of his visitors. Strange words 
straggled out of the unoccupied corner of his 
mouth. 

“Get out of here, James,” he shouted to the 
perturbed butler. “This is no place for you. 
Lock yourself up in your butler’s pantry and 
don’t come out no matter what noise your hear. 
Furthermore don’t you let anybody else come 
up here to-night as you value your life.” 

“We dressed up on the train to show you 
how we looked in our working clothes, Boss,” 
explained Jud. “We wouldn’t let Captain 
Nord wire for we hoped to surprise you.” 

“I ’ll say you succeeded too,” ejaculated the 
lumber-king. 

“Hey, Bill,” continued Jud, “open those 


THE BLUE PEARL 


340 

windows quick. This is worse than the Shu- 
man’s lodge with the incense going,” and he 
gently but firmly took possession of Big Jim’s 
pipe. 

“Make yourselves at home,” chuckled Big 
Jim, rescuing his pipe and shutting it up in a 
drawer. “Don’t mind me. The trouble with 
you, Jud, is that you don’t know a good pipe 
when you see it.” 

“I ’d know that pipe anywhere within two 
miles,” returned Jud, “and I would n’t have to 
see it neither. The boys have asked me to 
make a report to you, Boss,” he went on, plump- 
ing himself down in the largest chair in the 
room. “I ain’t much of a talker but here goes.” 

“You ain’t!” returned his host. “Why, Jud 
Adams, the only difference between you and 
a talking-machine is that a machine sometimes 
runs down — but go ahead. Let ’s hear the 
worst.” 

Two hours later Jud closed his report up 
to the fight of the Great Chief with the big 
brown bear. Big Jim drew a deep breath. 

“It don’t seem possible,” he said finally. 
“For the life of me I can’t see how an old has- 


THE BLUE PEARL 34 i 

been and three kids could ever have gone 
through what you did and come out alive.” 

“There you go again!” howled Jud, hopping 
up and down with his wiry gray hair standing 
on end like the quills of a porcupine. “All 
the time rqakin’ cracks at my age. I ’ll bet 
old Three-toes thought I was pretty young, 
an’ you ask Will an’ Fred here if my shootin’ 
ain’t just at its prime.” 

“You bet it is, Jud,” chorused both the boys. 

“All right, Jud, just as you say,” his old 
friend hastened to agree. “You don’t look a 
day over eighty. Your report is mighty in- 
teresting but — did you get what you went 
after?” and the old man leaned forward, every 
muscle and line of his face tense and expectant. 
There was a little pause. Then Will and 
Fred pushed the reluctant Joe forward. The 
Indian boy pulled out from under his parka 
a little leather bag. Untying the knot with 
fingers which trembled in spite of himself he 
motioned for the lumber-king to hold out his 
hand. Into his outstretched palm from the 
little bag dropped something round and shim- 
mering about twice the size of an ordinary 


342 


THE BLUE PEARL 


marble. In the lamplight it gleamed and 
glowed with a magical color that seemed to 
combine in itself all the blues of earth and air 
and sea. In its depths was the soft tint of the 
summer sky, the color of the bluebird’s back, 
the blue of the fringed gentian, the lustre of 
the veery’s eggs, the shimmer of deep, deep 
water and the pure depth of distant hilltops — 
all were in the grasp of the lumber-king’s 
hand. For long and long Big Jim Donegan 
looked and his face changed before them as 
one who sees a vision come true. 

“A blue pearl,” he half-whispered. 

“The Blue Pearl,” corrected Joe. 

What Cornwall said; what the Argonauts 
did with the fifty thousand dollars; and how 
the Blue Pearl sent them off on another treas- 
ure-hunt in the far South — all that is another 
story too. 


THE END 










